NEW JERSEY - The end of a New Jersey Transit local bus route will come in May, after officials determined it was getting too expensive to maintain.

Hackettstown officials on Monday said they received word from NJ Transit that the service will be discontinued for budgetary reasons, along with similar local route programs around the state.

"The fact of the matter is (NJ) Transit is going to be getting out of that business," said Mayor Michael Lavery.

The service is part of Transit's WHEELS program, which NJ Transit says "has exhausted its original federal funding to connect people to transit rail stations, and is underutilized in most areas, particularly in rural parts of the state," according to a news release on its Web site.

Town officials have said the service started locally about 20 years ago with federal funding - Hackettstown's share then was about $14,000. Hackettstown appropriated $54,000 early last year to cover its share, but the cost has since grown to nearly $80,000.

NJ Transit came back late in the year to ask for an additional $20,000, which was granted. Another $4,700 also was paid Monday to cover costs from last year.