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The angry commuters gathered at a public meeting Thursday to express their intent to fight Capital Metro's proposal to eliminate routes and add scheduled rides.

Two of the routes up for elimination serve Northwest Austin and Leander, and riders are worried about the alternatives. If they stick with riding the bus, their commute will be longer.

"You end up not seeing your family, not cooking dinner," a woman at the meeting said. "I mean - that's a real cost. You guys have the power to make us do that, but we won't like it."

Those concerns were echoed by the crowd and are reflected in the hundred of signatures on a petition.

"You would not put up with three hours a day. You would just say forget it. I have to do something else; I have to move; I have to drive," another concerned citizen said.

Cap Metro authorities say there's very low ridership on the routes that could be eliminated, and trying the train could be an alternative. The MetroRail is scheduled to get passengers back to the Leander station a little bit faster than even these eliminated routes would.

"A lot of people don't like change, but it's really about providing the most efficient service while still meeting customer demands," Capital Metro spokeswoman Misty Whited said. "In addition to all the changes we're looking at, we're doing as much as we can to promote and educate people about the service."

But passengers say they don't want to be forced to ride MetroRail. It's less convenient to them and more expensive.

"If you remove the convenience of time, you're going to lose some riders," one man said.

It was a message that resonated in the room of riders, who were worried about an even longer commute.

"We really have to say something, or they're going to do this without any input," bus rider James Crabtree said.

The first commuters got on board the MetroRail in March. A report released a month later criticized costs that more than doubled in developing the rail.