Metro Transit will eliminate the Route 3 Manors bus in November 2010. (Metro Transit)

A bus route designed to connect Halifax seniors' residences with downtown shopping services is to be eliminated this fall.

The loss of the Route 3 Manors bus will leave residents of the Joseph Howe, Richmond, J.H. Mackenzie and Gordon B. Isnor manors to find other modes of transportation in November.

Metro Transit said the route, which runs weekdays between 8:55 a.m. and 3:45 p.m., is not meeting service standards of 25 passengers per hour. Cutting the service will save nearly $178,000 per year, said spokesperson Lori Patterson. She said other routes should help make up for the loss.

"It was designed to try to serve all the manors and all the shopping centres, and as the transit system is growing we've introduced more routes on different frequencies that would address some of those needs."

But workers at the manors say the loss of the route will have serious effects on the residents.

Some seniors might lose the will to go out, said Irene Lapensee, a manager at Joseph Howe Manor.

"It'll be a shame because there's a lot of people already that don't like going out, and to have that little thing that might push them out gone, they'll become really recluse," she said.

The nearest bus stop is about 400 metres away but for 74-year-old Edna Tierney, who uses a walker, that's too far. Tierney said when the bus stops running she will have to call a taxi.

"Not everybody can afford to take a taxi," said Lapensee. "Which is what a lot of them will be reduced to."