Was it an omen when the wheels came off of a Port Authority bus this week?

After years of facing recurring budget crises, fare increases, threats of service cuts and actual cuts, transit riders are facing what might be their bumpiest trip ever this year, as the agency prepares for another fare hike and record-setting service reductions.

As if that wasn't enough, the authority's contract with its biggest union, representing drivers, mechanics and first-level supervisors, expires in June, and pre-bargaining rhetoric is already showing traces of hostility.

The authority board on Friday took the first step toward a 35 percent service reduction scheduled for Sept. 2 and fare increases planned for July 1, approving a legally mandated public comment period and hearing.

Public comment will be accepted from Feb. 5 to March 9, and an all-day public hearing will be held Feb. 29 at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center.

The base fare would rise by 25 cents, to $2.50. A Zone 2 trip would go up 50 cents, to $3.75.

Board members said they are opposed to service cuts but will have no choice unless Gov. Tom Corbett and the Legislature address a statewide transportation funding shortfall that has helped push the transit agency into a $64 million hole.

"This is not the desired direction of this board. But faced with an ongoing shortfall in state funding, we have to plan for the worst. And this is the worst," vice chairman Guy Mattola said.

"Cutting 35 percent of our total service, including nearly half of the routes in our entire system, would be a crushing blow to this region's transportation network. We're not talking anymore about the difference between getting a seat on a bus or standing. We're talking about whether there's a bus to ride at all," he said.

The cuts would eliminate 46 of the agency's remaining 102 routes, the largest reduction in the authority's 48-year history. The authority cut 15 percent of its service in March, stranding thousands of riders and forcing others into overcrowded buses.