Lawrence residents should get ready to spend more money on public transportation, even if the city’s T merges with the heavily used Kansas University transit systems.

A new public transit report delivered to city commissioners Wednesday estimated that the city will need to spend at least an additional $500,000 per year on upgrading buses and a maintenance facility, regardless of whether the city merges its system with KU.

In reality, the city should consider spending much more on public transportation, according to the report. The study recommends a merger with KU and also recommends that the city spend an additional $1.2 million per year on public transit to help fund an extension of evening hours, improve frequency on several routes and create a new north-south route in the western part of the city.

In short, the wheels fell off any idea that a much talked about merger with KU would produce cost savings.

“Much of this seems to be pretty counterintuitive,” City Commissioner David Schauner said of the report, noting that the recommended option would increase the city’s financial commitment by 100 percent but would increase service by only 33 percent.

“I guess I would say, ‘welcome to public transit,'” said Dan Boyle, the consultant who is studying the system for the city and KU.

City commissioners stopped short of committing to spend any additional dollars for public transportation, but did say they wanted to have conversations with KU administrators and student leaders to discuss a possible agreement that would merge the systems into a coordinated system overseen by a single advisory board. The board would be jointly controlled by city, university and student representatives. A merged system likely couldn’t begin operating until at least 2008.

“I think we’re going to have to compare these costs and look at what we can’t do in other parts of City Hall if we fund it,” Mayor Mike Amyx said. “It is going to be real important to see what we can’t do or what we would have to put off.”

A merged system also would require significant amounts of new money from KU student fees and from KU in general. Under the recommended option, the students – who run the heavily used KU on Wheels system – would increase their contributions from $1.07 million per year to $3.17 million per year. That would require a significant fee increase, but the new system would provide students with newer buses to replace their 22-year-old fleet. It also would allow all students to ride any KU or city bus for free. Currently, in addition to paying a student fee, they have to buy a bus pass for about $140 per year.

KU – which operates a separate park and ride bus system – would see its annual contribution increase from $300,000 per year to $1.42 million per year. Some of that new funding likely would be generated from an increase in parking permit rates. The university hopes expanded bus service will cut down on its needs to build expensive parking garages.

Boyle, the consultant, estimated that if the city follows the report’s recommendations that ridership could increase by 35 percent. Ridership increases would primarily be driven by allowing all students to ride the bus for free and the addition of evening hours that would stretch to 11 p.m. for several routes in the city. Currently, the city bus system shuts down at 8 p.m.

The report, though, offered a lower cost option. The city still would need to increase its annual funding by $500,000. That’s largely because the city’s fleet of 10 buses is expected to reach the end of its useful life by the end of 2008 and will need to be replaced. The lower cost option would not create any new routes or hours. It would increase the frequency of some routes by reallocating resources from lesser-used routes in the city and increase the number of transfer points between KU buses and city buses.

The city receives a little less than $2 million per year in federal funding to help operate the T. Boyle said he expected a merged system would attract additional federal money, but he said the system would still need the new local dollars mentioned in the report.

The city primarily provides local funding for the T through a property tax. Fares, which currently are 50 cents per ride, provide about 5 percent of the system’s operating revenue. The report recommends raising the fares to 75 cents in July 2007 and to $1 in July 2008, if the city provides the additional services recommended in the report.