The Maryland Transit Administration has suspended plans to expand its popular neighborhood shuttle program, officials said yesterday, blaming budget cuts ordered by Gov. Parris N. Glendening.

South Baltimore, Fells Point and Towson were slated to get the shuttle buses, which are 10 feet shorter than an MTA bus and cost 50 cents to ride. Service in South Baltimore was to begin next month.

"It's a big disappointment," said Bonnie Crockett, who runs the nonprofit Federal Hill Main Street Inc. "It would have been a great benefit to many of our neighbors here who don't drive and it would have brought people to shop and dine in Federal Hill."

The two neighborhood shuttles already running -- in Hampden and the Mondawmin area -- will continue. But officials said they cannot expand service with the state facing a $500 million deficit this year.

The South Baltimore shuttle would have cost $600,000 a year to operate, and the Towson shuttle $750,000. The cost for the Fells Point/Southeast Baltimore shuttle has not been estimated because the route has not been set.

"We know we're looking at reductions, and we don't want to implement service in one area and deny it where it already exists for others," MTA spokeswoman Suzanne Bond said.

When money becomes available, South Baltimore's route will be the priority, followed by Fells Point and then Towson, Bond said. But she could not predict when that might be.

When the first neighborhood shuttle began in Hampden two years ago, it was hailed as a friendly, easy way for people to get around their community and connect with other transit systems, such as light rail. The shuttle soon had about 15,000 riders a month.

The Mondawmin shuttle, which connected with the Metro subway, proved more popular when it opened one year ago. It draws more than 20,000 riders a month.

The program was informally dubbed the "shuttle bug," and each neighborhood chose its own insect mascot to be emblazoned on the sides of the buses. Hampden has the lady bug, Mondawmin the grasshopper, and South Baltimore was to be the butterfly.

The news of the program's suspension disheartened public transit advocates as well as South Baltimore residents.

The advocates say programs such as this draw more people to mass transit and show them it is not intimidating.

"It's getting people onto transit who wouldn't use it and it's a neighborhood revitalization strategy," said Brent Flickinger, transportation director for the Citizens Planning and Housing Association.

"In the long run, we're going to need more neighborhood shuttles. But right now we just need to hold on to what we have."

Planning for the South Baltimore shuttle began a year ago. A citizens group devised two proposed routes. The MTA then held two public hearings this year to gauge support. More than 600 people attended the hearings.

The route set by the community Oct. 3 would have made a loop from the Inner Harbor to Locust Point, Riverside Park, Cross Street Market and back to the Convention Center.

The Towson shuttle would have included stops at Goucher College, Towson University, St. Joseph Medical Center, downtown Towson and various shopping centers.

"These aren't regular routes that the MTA plans and puts before the community," Bond said. "These are routes the community plans and puts before us."

In South Baltimore, Bond said, residents planned to ride the shuttle to jobs downtown or in Locust Point's Tide Point complex. Parks, markets and health centers were also along the route.

"To me the saddest part is to see all that community support and effort for nothing," said Crockett of Federal Hill Main Street. "It's going to be hard to rouse them again."