Meredith Sterling’s entire work schedule hinges on the Worcester/Framingham commuter rail line.

On weekends, when the earliest train doesn’t leave Worcester until 7 a.m., she starts her shift at a Dunkin’ Donuts near the Framingham stop later than usual. During snowstorms, she leaves early to catch the last train, sacrificing a few hours of pay to avoid being stranded.

Without weekend train service, Sterling, 26, would probably look for another job. The cost of Uber or taxi rides would eat up too much of her paycheck.

So when Sterling learned that the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority was considering cutting back service on the weekends — or eliminating it altogether — her eyes widened with alarm.

“We depend on the service that they’re just starting to get the bugs out of,’’ she said with a sigh on a recent Saturday. “And instead of just fixing the bugs, they just want to cut the whole thing altogether. It’s like, ‘The dog has fleas, so let’s just shoot it.’ ’’

Last month, MBTA officials floated the idea of scrapping weekend commuter rail service for a year to save $10 million and narrow a projected budget deficit. Officials say low weekend ridership means the agency pays more than $33 to subsidize each weekend ride on the commuter rail, compared with about $5 on weekdays.

The idea was sharply criticized, and Governor Charlie Baker has since said that the wholesale elimination of weekend rides is off the table. But transit officials have made it clear they are looking for ways to provide more cost-effective service, putting the trains that draw fewer passengers in jeopardy.

But a Saturday morning trip on the Worcester/Framingham line shows solid demand for weekend service, including many passengers who rely on it to get to work.

Around 6:45 a.m., Sterling climbed the stairs to Worcester’s Union Station, where she and about 25 other riders — teenagers and middle-aged men on the way to work, 20-somethings on their way to Boston for St. Patrick’s Day weekend — made their way onto Coach 918.

The inbound train is almost always busier than the return trip later in the day, Sterling said, when she’ll sometimes have a coach all to herself.

That makes her understand why the MBTA might look to reduce weekend service. But without it, Sterling isn’t sure what she would do. She recently moved from Framingham to Worcester to save money on rent, and an Uber ride to work can cost between $30 and $85, depending on the time of day. For a job that pays about $12 an hour, it hardly makes sense.

“I get the funding, and I get why they would cut it,’’ she said. “But I mean, it just feels like — well, it is what it is.’’

On the second level of Coach 918, Brian Fitzgerald, a Northeastern University business professor, had a similar reaction to the prospect of losing weekend service: It is what it is.

Fitzgerald lives in Hopkinton and takes the train to his office on weekends to avoid driving.

“We’re a captive audience,’’ Fitzgerald said, his leather work bag resting on the seat beside him. “It’s very disturbing, but it would be consistent with Keolis’s general operating standards.’’

Keolis Commuter Services runs the commuter rail for the MBTA, and Fitzgerald remains angry over its performance during the record-breaking winter of 2015, when trains didn’t run for days at a time.

Fares have gone up, too, pushing the cost of his yearly pass over $3,800. But the MBTA knows people will pay because they have little choice not to.

Isabella Corazzini, a 16-year-old from Worcester, takes the train with her sister every weekend to the University of Massachusetts Boston, where they work with an advocacy group for undocumented students. Her parents work weekends, she said, and she doesn’t have a car.

“For teens, it can be the only way of getting into Boston,’’ she said.

In the seats behind her, some occasional weekend riders said they appreciate having the option of the train. Dave Harpin, Bob Kupfert, and Matt Fung, graduate students in their 20s, were cheery as they bounded onto the train, clad in green shirts for St. Patrick’s Day.

Fung said they didn’t want to drive in case it snowed, so they got up early to catch the train. It was worth it, they said.

While the MBTA considers scaling back weekend service, regulars like the idea of expanding it, saying there aren’t enough trains to be convenient. Public transportation advocates said adding weekend trains would increase ridership, but it seems unlikely the MBTA would want to take the gamble.

Sterling sometimes has to wait an hour or more to catch the next train home to Worcester, where she lives about a 20-minute walk from the station.

As she headed into work, she worried about having to switch jobs if her train stopped running. Maybe she could be transferred to a Dunkin’ Donuts that was closer, but she wasn’t sure whether other stores were hiring. The job market wasn’t exactly booming, she said.

She has been taking the train for less than a year, but it has gotten better, she said. It leaves right on time these days, instead of sputtering forward a few minutes late. Things were going in the right direction.

“Now, it just feels like a giant step back,’’ she said.

Nicole Dungca can be reached at nicole.dungca@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @ndungca