Several bus lines around the East Bay, including ones serving Oakland hills public and private schools, either will be cut or offer reduced services.

Jason Hodge, AC Transit director of external affairs, said transit officials had to cut service to stave off a massive budget deficit. More than 100 lines in the AC Transit system will be affected, including nearly a dozen in the hills.

"When we looked at the lines that will have to be cut because of our revenue problems, we looked at the lines that served the fewest amount of passengers," Hodge said. "Many of those are in the hills."

Buses into Montclair and those running along Skyline Boulevard to the Chabot Space and Science Center were among several lines lost or altered this summer during AC Transit's first round of cuts. Those cuts, which started this August, meant the biggest service reshuffling since the 1990s.

This second round of cuts is twice as large.

Hodge said many hills schools were slated to lose service too, but AC Transit developed a new line that will pick up students in the Montclair and Skyline High School areas and transport them home.

The new Route 685 bus will depart from Moraga Avenue at Medau Place at 3:50 p.m., when buses from Bishop O'Dowd, Head-Royce, College Preparatory School, Holy Names and Skyline High School reach that transfer point.

The bus first will first drop off passengers at the Skyline Boulevard and Tunnel Road area. It will then loop back to Moraga Avenue, pick up more students, and then travel through the hills to a final stop at Castle Drive and Skyline.

Hodge said the company will launch a public relations campaign later this month to tell students about the changes.

"We have a whole outreach plan. We don't want the kids to be stranded," Hodge said.

But stranded they will be, said Skyline High School student Patrick Sears, who worked on a campaign to keep bus service running for students who stay on campus after school for sports, tutoring and other activities. He'd like to see service until at least 7 p.m.

"There are going to be all kinds of kids left up here," he said, adding he was disappointed the last bus from Skyline will leave about 4 p.m. Councilmember Jean Quan (Montclair-Laurel) said she is happy AC Transit has restored some service to the schools, but said she wants to work with AC Transit to eventually bring cut lines back to the hills.

"It's not acceptable to have no service in the hills," she said.

Other service cuts in the hills include:

Routes 1, 2, 3, and 4 serv-ing Piedmont, Piedmont schools and the Lakeshore area will be eliminated. Bus 41 will replace some service lost.

Route 5 serving Montclair to Piedmont Pines will be cut, except for school-time service. Route 305, the Montclair Shopper shuttle, will not be cut.

Route 46, which serves the hills from the Coliseum BART station to stops along Skyline Boulevard, will be shortened to stop at Keller Avenue with no service in the hills.

Route 48, serving Redwood Heights from the Fruitvale BART Station, will stop just short of Mills College.

Route 54, which serves Merritt College, will no longer run between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m.

Route 60, which serves Skyline High, will be cut.

Other hills routes have had minor schedule changes. Visit www.actransit.org for more information.

Quan's office will be hosting a community forum with AC Transit staff and board members from 7 to 9 p.m. Dec. 18 at 4173 MacArthur Blvd., second floor, to discuss the changes.