The late-night Blue and White Loops aren't going anywhere, officials said yesterday.

Despite recent confusion regarding the Centre Area Transportation Authority's (CATA) debate over cutting Blue and White Loop routes, Eric Bernier, CATA service development manager, said nothing can be changed without Penn State's permission.

"We have an agreement with Penn State on how many hours of loop service we will run," he said. "We are not going to make any changes on the loop without reaching an agreement with Penn State."

Originally, Bernier had said "anything is up for grabs," when speaking about which CATA routes could be cut, and he said the less-necessary routes would be the first to go. However, Teresa Davis, director of transportation services at Penn State, said there was a misunderstanding over who has the power to cut bus routes.

"I was hearing and reading it that there was concern about losing the late-night service when that had not even been discussed," she said.

Bernier said the state funding issue will affect Penn State.

"Some of the government subsidy money goes toward the loop and link service," he said. "Penn State pays the majority of the hourly service. If we see significant cuts in funding, we would have to look at all service, the loop and link included."

He said this could cause a potential increase in contract price for Penn State's loop and link services -- a service Penn State currently pays $1.6 million for.

"[The funding] may not affect Penn State in a direct sense, but it could conceivably drive up the hourly cost of operating the loop, so indirectly, the cost of providing the service would be affected," he said.

Davis said the price has been steadily increasing for the past two years because of fuel prices, not government funding.

Jill Shockey, Penn State spokeswoman, said any changes due to funding issues will be discussed in the annual contractual discussion. The CATA contract is up for review this spring.

"If CATA would like to charge more, that's something that would have to be discussed with Penn State," she said. "Those services are set in place well before the semester and well before the start of the academic year."

The contract is for three years, but bus service is reviewed each year to seek improvements.

"CATA can't come in the middle of a contract and say, we have to cut your service," Davis said. "We determine what will be cut."