Study calls for new bus routes, extended service in LA

LEWISTON — A transportation plan would add a bus stop in downtown Lewiston and Auburn, offer Saturday trips to Wal-Mart, boost service to local hospitals and Central Maine Community College and extend bus service earlier in the morning and later in the day.

The cost, according to Transit Planner Tom Crikelair: $200,000 per city, per year.

Crikelair and members of the Lewiston-Auburn Transit Committee presented findings of a newly finished study of L-A's citylink bus system. It's a good system, he said, but underfunded.

"The way I sum it up is like this: You are trying to paint a three-story building with a two-and-a-half-story ladder," he said. "You need to extend that ladder a bit if you want to get the job done."

The study calls for making the system more accessible to working folks, starting routes earlier in the day and running them later at night. It also calls for adding stops in both downtowns, including Hillview Apartments, the Franco-American Heritage Center and Little Canada, the Androscoggin Valley and Auburn Mall apartments in Auburn and Montello and Geiger elementary schools in Lewiston.

Some routes would run less often during the day, Crikelair said, making it easier for buses to stay on schedule.

The plan also calls for creating a new shuttle between St. Mary's Regional Medical Center, the Lewiston Multi-Purpose Center and the neighborhood west of Kennedy Park.

Citylink would also begin offering Saturday service, Crikelair said.

"But it wouldn't be full Saturday routes," he said. Citylink would offer two routes, between downtown Lewiston and Wal-Mart and New Auburn and Wal-Mart.

The Transit Committee requested $150,000 from each city in the 2009-10 budget, but received $130,000 from each. Crikelair's study called for increasing that by $70,000 per city.

"We recognize that you are experiencing difficult economic conditions and that future tax revenues are uncertain," he said. "But your constituents share this economic uncertainty."

Councilors from each city will take up the new service requests next spring, as part of their 2010-11 budget discussions.

Lewiston Councilor Nelson Peters said he'd be more apt to support it if he felt businesses would support it. "They might say, 'If you are running buses to my Wal-Mart, perhaps I might be convinced to contribute something."

But Auburn Councilor Ron Potvin said the cities need to fund the bus service.

"An urban mass transit system is a part of life in cities these days," Potvin said.

staylor@sunjournal.com