A BUS service that links The Wyvern, Pride Park's park and ride and Derby city centre would be scrapped if city council budget cuts go ahead as proposed.
But a director of Littles, the company which runs the Route 111, said he had offered the council an alternative which would see it saved but not running as often.
And a council spokeswoman said the authority was "working with partners with a view to retaining the service".
In 2014 there were more than 174,000 individual passenger journeys on the route, the council has said.
The authority has proposed to stop subsidising the service as part of a raft of "transport service" cuts aimed at saving £205,000 a year.
That would help towards the £22 million it needs to save in the year from April 1, due to cuts to its grants from Government, inflation and other pressures like new duties for looking after carers.
Steve Wells, a director at Littles, said the proposals, as they stood, would mean the service ending as it would not be commercially viable.
Mr Wells said: "I've had a couple of ladies from Pride Park organisations e-mailing me because they are worried about how workers will be able to get to work. [Elderly and disabled] people with Gold Cards use the service a lot as well."
He said that the bus company had presented the council with a proposal for a reduced service.
This would save the council £100,000 a year – less than a full scrapping of the subsidy would.
Instead of running every 10 minutes, from 7am to 6.30pm, it would operate every 20 at peak times and every 30 in the middle of the day, when it is not as well used.
Mr Wells said there were currently four drivers and three vehicles on the route, which would change to two and two if the proposal was accepted.
If the service was to stop, Mr Wells said the firm would try to find the drivers other work but that he was not sure if there was any.
The council spokeswoman said: "We have a huge amount of budget savings to make as a result of central government cuts and, unfortunately, this means we cannot continue to run services in the way they were previously.
"This is why options are being explored in regard to the subsidies for this service."
She said any changes to the service would not be made until "early in the 2015-16 financial year".
