Piedmont and Oakland hills residents can expect major cutbacks in bus services starting Dec. 21.

The changes are part of a systemwide service reduction plan in Alameda and Contra Costa counties announced last week by AC Transit officials to help the agency offset a multimillion-dollar shortfall in operating funds, they said.

"We can't promise nobody will be impacted," said AC Transit spokesman Mike Mills. "Some people are going to be hurt, (and) within the agency, some jobs are going to be affected. In the long run, we hope the economy will bounce back."

To compensate for reduced funds, resulting from the weak economy, the agency is ending or reducing service in areas with the fewest bus riders, Mills said. The changes will be implemented, he said, but many of the service cuts are expected to be reconsidered as the economy strengthens.

In both counties, about 18 of 150 bus lines will be discontinued, while routes or spans of service on roughly half of the other lines will be changed.

Some routes will be modified in order to consolidate trans-Bay service in the MacArthur Boulevard corridor, for instance.

Districtwide, AC Transit is reducing daily bus service by about 660 hours, or nearly 10 percent, thereby cutting operating expenses by about $16 million.

"This agency is in a situation where we have to reduce our work force, and to do that we have to reduce service with the lightest patronage," Mills said.

Piedmont and the Oakland hills have low numbers of bus riders, he added.

Bus service cutbacks affecting Montclair and Piedmont are as follows:

• Line 1, Trestle Glen, and Line 2, Highland Avenue/MacArthur Boulevard, will be discontinued;

• Line 3, Blair Avenue, and Line 4, Estates Drive in Piedmont, will be merged into Line 41;

• Line 5, Snake Road, and Line 60, Piedmont Pines, will be discontinued, but not the 305 or 350 shuttle trips in these areas; the new Line 642 will provide two morning and afternoon trips on the current route of Lines 5 and 60 to help students get to and from school;

• Line 46A, which operates on Skyline Boulevard, takes students to Skyline High School and entails extensive supplemental service, will be discontinued;

• Line 46 will continue to operate in East Oakland but will not go up to Skyline;

• Line 54, serving Merritt College, will continue to operate until 10 p.m.; and

• Line 59/59A will go through minor schedule adjustments.

"I think we're kind of stuck," said Piedmont Mayor Valerie Matzger. "It would be kind of like beating a dead horse" to protest the cuts because the transit company is strapped for cash.

"They made a policy decision to pump up San Pablo corridor, and their bucks are going into that," Matzger said.

At Skyline High in Oakland, parents hailed a move by AC Transit to keep Line 654 running until 7:30 p.m. on school days.

The route links the school with the rest of the city and includes the Fruitvale BART station. Buses were set to stop running on that route immediately after school ended, but parents and students rallied to keep the service going.

Parent Carolyn Kemp said the after-school bus service is needed so students can either play sports or get tutoring help in the late afternoon.

Still, bus service from the school to the Oakland Coliseum will be available only immediately after school as of Dec. 21, according to a letter AC Transit sent to parents.

Oakland Councilwoman Jean Quan of District 4 said community members will get a chance to publicly urge AC Transit officials to reconsider service cuts in and around the hills at a community forum set for 7 to 9 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 18, at 4173 MacArthur Blvd., second floor. The forum also will give residents an opportunity to understand the full impact of AC Transit plans.

Mills said AC Transit officials welcome the chance to meet with residents, but residents should not expect any "happy news."

"The (agency's) finances are such that the program has to proceed," Mills said. "We can talk about reinstating services when the economy improves, but that's not going to happen from now until Dec. 21.

"There have been extensive public hearings for months, and as a result of those hearings, there have been considerable alterations to what was originally proposed," he added.

Even if residents don't impact the agency's cuts, Quan said, the forum at least will give residents a chance to voice their concerns.

"AC Transit can't just keep cutting (services) because less people use the bus in the hills," Quan said. "They're disenfranchising the hills. They have to come up with something much more creative. It's not reasonable to say that a whole part of town won't have any options."