A rider revolt against the Lawrence school district’s new pay-to-ride bus system will force elimination of more than a dozen routes that have too few passengers, officials said Tuesday.

One route already has been dropped. Others will be axed next week. Even more consolidation may occur.

“After we get these cut, we’ll go back and evaluate it again,” said Bob Osborn, general manager of the Laidlaw bus depot serving Lawrence schools.

The school board this academic year began a fee-based bus system to help balance the district’s 2002-2003 budget. The fees began when classes started last month, and the number of students on district buses has fallen to 1,600 this year from 2,800 last year.

Rick Gammill, the district’s director of transportation, said the district would save about $143,000 annually by trimming 13 routes serving seven schools.

“That’s a substantial amount of money,” Gammill said. “(With) the shape of everything up here right now, every little bit helps.”

He said some students might spend up to an additional 15 minutes riding the bus on new, combined routes.

School board members and district officials had anticipated a slip in ridership and were prepared for possible deletion of routes, said Sue Morgan, school board vice president. She said the district’s goal was to generate $200,000 in transportation cost savings and bus fees.

“It certainly is a hardship for some folks,” Morgan said. “We’ll need to look at it after the dust settles.”

So far, Laidlaw has received $47,800 in pay-to-ride fees from students riding buses in the district. The annual bus fee is $260, so about 200 students have paid to ride.

Removing about 10 percent of routes will reduce the district’s contract payment to Laidlaw by $143,000 this year. Collectively, that gets the district within $10,000 of its budgetary objective.

Six buses will be eliminated from service, including a few that run double routes. Five other double routes will be switched to single runs.

Osborn said one route to Riverside School was deleted Tuesday. One route serving Free State High School and one serving South Junior High School will be withdrawn Monday, he said.

Adjustments in routes at Southwest Junior High School and Schwegler, Sunflower and Deerfield schools are expected by the middle of next week after parents have had ample warning.

“We’re notifying parents  by handing out schedules to students on the bus to take home,” Osborn said.

He said urban routes experienced the steepest decline, while ridership on rural routes remained high.

State law exempts some students from bus fees because they live far from school or participate in special-education programs.

Osborn said the decrease in route assignments wouldn’t result in layoffs at Laidlaw.

“We’ll be overstaffed now,” he said, “but nobody is going to lose their job as a result of it.”