Local bus service might improve if the buses ran less frequently, according to a new transit study.

A draft transit plan being presented to Lewiston and Auburn city councils on Wednesday suggests reducing bus service on each route from 30-minute schedules to 60 minutes.

“The study says that we have a hard time staying on a 30-minute schedule, and that pushes us into unreliable service,” said Marsha Bennett, coordinator for the Lewiston-Auburn Transit Committee. “The bus winds up being late, and people don’t know if the bus is even coming. If it’s unreliable, they’re less likely to use it.”

The plan calls for using that time to push service into new areas – adding stops at Montello and Geiger elementary schools on Lewiston’s Main Street route, adding Hillview to the Sabattus Street route as well as a Central Maine Medical Center-Lewiston shuttle.

“We’re also trying to streamline service so that it makes more sense,” Bennett said. “For example, the Sabattus Street bus stops at St. Mary’s Hospital on the way back into town, and people end up riding the entire route to get there. The new schedule would stop there twice, on the way out of town and the way back in.”

Councilors are scheduled to review and discuss the draft plan at their joint meeting, scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. in Lewiston City Hall.

Councilors from both cities have said they’d like to see better service from the bus system, as well as more riders. But Bennett said she understands that budgets are tight. The budgets being considered call for each city to spend $125,000 in the next fiscal year.

The plan presents three options, each more expensive than the last. The low-cost option asks for an additional $119,000 per year for bus service. The next option calls for $285,000 and the most expensive calls for $454,000.