The Woodlands Township board of directors cut the price of a shuttle ticket to the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo from The Woodlands in half after several weeks of poor ticket sales.

The board Feb. 21 unanimously voted to change the price for a round-trip ticket from $25 to $13 after receiving only 137 reservations for the service, which will be offered on three weekends in March.

“We have advertised a $25 round-trip ticket, and again that is based on the cost of the program to us,” Don Norrell, president and general manager of The Woodlands Township, said at the meeting.

He said the expected ridership numbers had been based on the average park and ride statistics from The Woodlands.

“We’ve done a lot of advertisement and a lot of promotion, and the numbers are less than what we thought they’d be,” he said.

Director Bruce Rieser said he views this year’s program as a trial run.

“It’s not an exorbitant amount of money,” he said of the program, which cost the township about $30,000 to implement. Reiser said it could not be expected to immediately break even on a trial run.

Board vice chairman John McMullan said the township trolley service does not break even either.

“It’s just a pure subsidy,” he said.

The board voted to reduce the shuttle ticket prices and refund the difference for those who have already booked a seat.

Tickets can be purchased from First Class Tours for the weekends of March 2-3, 9-10 and 16-17.