The Yellow Line will stop servicing the College Park Metro Station on Sunday, eliminating the city’s direct service to Reagan International Airport and Virginia.

Metro will also eliminate Yellow Rush Plus, which added six trains each hour to the Yellow Line during peak hours.

Metrorail fares will increase by 10 cents during peak hours and 25 cents during off-peak hours. Most Metrobus fares will rise by 25 cents as well, according to a May 12 press release.

“It’s unfortunate, and this is speaking for the department and myself,” said Anna McLaughlin, the University of Maryland’s Department of Transportation Services spokeswoman. “I take Metro every day on my way to work. That Rush Plus, it was a real benefit to College Park. Having those rush trains run on the Yellow Line really decreased wait time and made it a more efficient and quick way to get to campus.”

The changes, which the Metro Board of Directors approved earlier this year, are part of an effort to close the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority’s budget shortfall while providing safe and reliable service, according to the press release.

Decreased ridership has resulted in a $290 million budget shortfall, according to WMATA.

[Read more: UMD on-campus residents could start paying a mandatory fee for unlimited Metro access]

McLaughlin said she views the changes as a return to the norm, rather than a radical shift in services, because Yellow Line Rush Plus has been around only since June 2012.

“We still had the Green Line,” McLaughlin said, reflecting on her commute a few years back. “It was an easy switch once you got down to Fort Totten or Mt. Vernon Square depending on what time of day you were traveling.”

DOTS has little sway over WMATA’s decision-making process, McLaughlin said.

“We work with WMATA as much as possible and have a relationship with them to some extent, but we don’t have any pull when it comes to decisions they’re making for the whole entire system of D.C., Maryland and Virginia,” she said.

DOTS doesn’t have any plans to change its services in response to the Yellow Line shutdown, McLaughlin added.

While the extra wait times will be an inconvenience to campus commuters, McLaughlin said she hopes DOTS won’t see a decrease in the students who decide to use mass transit.

“It doesn’t make things easier,” she said. “We’re trying to make the case for people to try something other than driving their car to campus. Having a transit service that isn’t quick and easy is a much tougher sell.”

Rhodel Bradshaw, a public health graduate student who uses Metrobus and Metrorail, said the changes will make it more challenging to juggle research and class with his commute from Beltsville, Maryland.

“Not increasing the amount of service they do, but increasing the fares is just, I think it’s just crazy,” Bradshaw said. “Metro is already expensive as it is, so I think nixing the Yellow Line and increasing fares would just cause a lot of problems and a lot of delays.”

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The Residence Hall Association doesn’t expect the increased fares to change a recent proposal for a $130 per semester on-campus resident fee for unlimited metro access, said Tzvi Glazer, the organization’s vice president.

“In fact, it will make our deal a better deal by getting us more bang for the buck,” Glazer said. “What we would be buying from WMATA is effectively a free pass for every student for one dollar per day per student. Therefore, if their prices go up, the pass would be more beneficial.”

While the RHA’s proposal could alleviate fare increases for campus residents, those who don’t live on the campus wouldn’t see the same benefit.

Samuel Obasi, a Parkdale High School student who started working at the Taco Bell in Stamp Student Union this summer, commutes from New Carrollton, sometimes via the College Park station.

“I don’t think it’s going to necessarily interrupt my commute, but it’s not something you want to happen,” Obasi said. “I’ll just be paying more money to ride the same bus without any major changes.”

Metrorail hours of operation also face some slight shake-ups. Weekday service will run from 5 a.m. to 11:30 p.m., with the exception of Friday, when the lines will run until 1 a.m. Saturday service will run from 7 a.m. to 1 a.m. and Sunday service will run from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m.

The changes in hours of operation will cost riders an hour of evening service during the weekdays, but add an hour on Friday and Saturday evenings.