PEABODY — The Massachusetts Port Authority's decision to terminate the express bus from Peabody to Logan Airport is unfair and a slight to North Shore commuters, Senate Majority Leader Fred Berry and two other area legislators said in a letter to the state agency.

"As the legislative representatives from the city of Peabody, we are contacting you to express our sincere disappointment regarding the ... abrupt decision to discontinue the Peabody-Logan Express bus service," wrote Berry, D-Peabody, in a letter co-signed by state Reps. Joyce Spiliotis, D-Peabody, and Ted Speliotis, a Danvers Democrat whose district includes a small section of Peabody.

Massport announced last week that it will discontinue the express bus in May because it has few riders and is losing money. The Peabody to Logan bus had 87,600 passengers last year compared to 274,200 for Woburn and almost 500,000 in Braintree.

"That really tells the story," Massport spokesman Richard Walsh said.

Berry and his colleagues asked the Massport board to reconsider its decision and suggested keeping the Peabody shuttle alive by decreasing the number of runs, using smaller vehicles and doing more advertising.

Massport got the letter but rejected the suggestions.

"There won't be any further board action on this," Walsh said. "... The suggestions the legislators made, I think for the most part, we analyzed before the decision was made."

North Shore commuters, he said, can use the Woburn service, which overlaps with the Peabody service.

In their letter, the legislators said North Shore commuters are "already paying their fair share to Massport" in tolls on the Tobin Bridge and "question the fairness of financial hardships they endure in relation to commuters from the South Shore."

This recent decision to end the Logan express bus, they said, "only reinforces the question of fairness."

The express bus from Peabody to Logan, which costs $20 for a round-trip ticket, lost $5 million over the past five years, Massport said.