Riding home from his Boston job to his Mansfield home, Edmund Laurie turned his attention from the sunset landscape speeding past to the question of higher fares and reduced schedules.

"I think they (the MBTA) have a lot of overhead and high administration costs that could definitely be reduced," Laurie said. "They could work on cuts and reorganizing before raising fares."

With the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority facing $5 billion in debt, General Manager Daniel Grabuskas filed paperwork last week to increase fares and cut services.

Grabuskas said reductions in service could include major cutbacks in evening trains and the elimination of weekend service.

While MBTA spokesman Joe Pesaturo said "no specific service cuts or fare increases have been proposed at this point," the MBTA must overcome a $114 million deficit for fiscal year 2010. Laurie, who rides the commuter rail every day, said the MBTA needs to face economic realities the way Massachusetts citizens are forced to do each day.

"Everyone else is tightening their belts, and I think the MBTA needs to do that," Laurie said.

The MBTA and the state are making that attempt.

Gov. Deval Patrick's 2010 budget includes a proposed 19-cent gas tax increase that would dedicate 3 cents to fund the MBTA. On Wednesday, the Senate approved a bill that would merge the MBTA, MassHighway and the Massachusetts Transportation Authority.

According to a special state commission report, the consolidation would save the state $6.5 billion over the next 20 years.

Additionally, the Senate bill would eliminate an MBTA policy that allowed employees to collect pensions after working 23 years. Instead, employees would have to work 25 years and be at least 55 to retire. House debate on the bill is scheduled for next week.

For commuters such as Alex Moore, the governor's plan makes sense. Moore, who takes the commuter rail from the Route 128 station into Boston for his job at Verizon, said everyone needs to support public transportation.

"I would like to see the cost of transportation shared among different groups that use it. There are T riders, but there are people who drive. I think a gas tax makes sense," Moore said.

A small gas tax, along with a small toll increase, would be the best way of distributing the cost of Massachusetts transportation, Moore said.

For some, like Bilal Mustafa, public transportation is the only option. Sitting on the darkened Attleboro platform at 8:30 p.m., Mustafa said the train is the only way he can see his wife after he moved to Boston for a job. A cut in evening and weekend service would make it hard on him and his wife.

"I don't have a car, so I have to come by the commuter rail," Mustafa said.

Kathryn Sherman, a Providence resident who commutes to an investment firm in Boston's Back Bay, took time from listening to her iPod to offer a way the MBTA could balance its budget.

"They could save a lot of money just by running the trains on time," she said. "I don't know how many times I've gotten refunds back from late trains."

Camille Roane is a correspondent for The Sun Chronicle through the Boston University Statehouse Program.