FARGO - A proposed commuter bus route between this city and neighboring Moorhead, Minn. and Wahpeton and Breckenridge, Minn. is on hold after a survey of potential riders found limited interest.

"We aren't giving up on this, but it's not going to happen for a while," said Georgia Beaudry, coordinator of Clay County Rural Transit.

About 950 residents of North Dakota's Richland County and 320 resident of Minnesota's Wilkin County work in the Fargo-Moorhead metro area. Wahpeton is in Richland County, Breckenridge in Wilkin.

Clay County Rural Transit hoped to establish daily bus service that would transport some of those nearly 1,300 Richland and Wilkin residents to work in the Fargo-Moorhead area, then take then home again.

Clay County Rural Transit already operates commuter routes between Barnesville, Minn., and Moorhead-Fargo and Detroit Lakes, Minn., and Moorhead-Fargo.

The Fargo-Moorhead Metropolitan Council of Governments contacted large area businesses who employ people who live in Richland or Wilkin counties and work in the Fargo-Moorhead area, said Wade Kline, a transportation planner with MetroCog.

In a survey prepared by the Small Urban and Rural Transit Center at North Dakota State University, 96 employees of those companies were asked whether they're interested in using a commuter transit bus.

Sixty people responded. Fifteen said they are interested, eight said they're not. Twenty-three said they might be, 14 said they're uncertain.

That response, while not definitive, indicated there's no great interest, at least for now, in the proposed route, Kline said.

MetroCog expects to study the proposed route again next year, he said.