Representatives Bennie G. Thompson, Sheila Jackson Lee and Yvette D. Clarke told the M.T.A. that dismissing hundreds of employees could put riders at risk.

Train and bus service would be reduced under a budget-balancing plan.

The landmark Paradise Theater in the Bronx was the setting for a Metropolitan Transportation Authority hearing on what New Yorkers think of plans to slash train and bus service.

At public hearings around the city, representatives from the financially troubled transit agency have mostly sat silent as politicians, schoolchildren, union officials and riders’ advocates spoke.

The proposed cuts to New York City’s bus and subway service are entering the court of public opinion this week with a set of hearings being held by the M.T.A.

The subway fare is scheduled to rise 7.5 percent next year and another 7.5 percent in 2013, but a larger or earlier increase is not out of the question.

Some residents of Long Island City apartment buildings complain that on recent weekends, loud exhaust fans deprived them of sleep.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is said to be laying off station agents in an effort to save $50 million.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is said to be laying off station agents in an effort to save $50 million.

The move is part of a broad belt-tightening at the authority, which is facing at $400 million budget shortfall.