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LOS ANGELES (AP) _ The Metropolitan Transportation Authority approved a new $2.86 billion budget Thursday that requires layoffs but preserves important additions and improvements to bus, rail and highway systems in Los Angeles County.

The 2005-2006 plan calls for $153 million less than the current amended budget, but will drain much of the authority's reserves and lead to the elimination of between 80 and 100 workers, MTA officials said. Added costs to the agency include rising gas prices, insurance, security and workers' compensation pay.

The layoffs will be offset by the hiring of 98 union employees next year to work on the Metro Orange Line and added bus service, they said.

"In the year ahead, Metro again will be straitjacketed by financial constraints on many fronts and, yet, we still push forward on major transit projects," said Roger Snoble, the agency's chief executive.

The plan also calls for the elimination of the last hour of late-night metro service on the light rail Green and Gold lines and parts of the Red Line subway for a savings of $1.4 million. A recent survey found that a total of 261 passengers ride those lines between 12:30 a.m. and 1:30 a.m., said Marc Littman, MTA spokesman.

Bus service will continue to be available in those areas, he said.

The MTA has a number of new projects under way, including a 14-mile Metro Orange Line bus transitway to link North Hollywood and the West San Fernando Valley; seven new Metro Rapid bus lines throughout the service area; and the addition of carpools lanes and improvement projects on Interstate 5, and Highways 14 and 118.

The MTA said tunnel-boring machines will be lowered into the ground this summer for construction of a Gold Line extension to East Los Angeles, slated to open in 2009, and the MTA may break ground in fiscal 2006 on a 9.6-mile light rail line from downtown through the Exposition Park area and west to Culver City.