Revenues from increased sales taxes won’t be the only funds accelerating plans for coordinated transit services in Lawrence.

The Kansas Department of Transportation this week agreed to contribute up to $120,000 to the city and Kansas University to hire a consultant to help coordinate efforts.

The consultant, described as an “implementation specialist,” will be instructed to review schedules, routes, assets, personnel and all other aspects of the community’s two primary systems — KU on Wheels, serving KU, and the T, serving the city as a whole — in search of efficiencies and potential service enhancements.

The first round of recommended changes would be expected for review by early March, in time for officials to approve adjustments to schedules and routes by spring break, when KU students traditionally start making decisions about where to live for the next academic year. A second round of recommended changes — and likely larger in scope — would be anticipated for consideration in time for the 2010-2011 school year.

Transit leaders have been reviewing applications from five firms, and intend to have a recommendation ready for approval Jan. 27 by Lawrence city commissioners. KU Provost Richard Lariviere also must sign off on the chosen consultant.

KDOT’s decision to finance the bulk of the consultant’s work certainly comes as good news for operators of the two transit systems. To take advantage of the grant, the city and KU each would have to contribute up to $12,000 to the effort to satisfy the 20 percent “local match” that comes with such awards.

The Lawrence-Douglas County Metropolitan Planning Organization already has $20,000 set aside this year to finance all or part of such a match.