Lewiston-Auburn’s “citylink” shuttle won’t start its downtown route for at least two more weeks.
AUBURN – A glitch in federal funding will keep the Twin Cities’ bus system from beginning a new schedule Monday.
Lewiston-Auburn’s “citylink” bus system was set to begin new routes with a free shuttle between the two downtowns Monday.
But the system had not yet received funding approval from the state and two federal agencies, said Marsha Bennett, transit coordinator for the Lewiston-Auburn Transit Committee.
“We were a bit too optimistic,” Bennett said. “We kept hearing that it was going to happen and going to happen, and it didn’t. Now we’re trying to avoid creating too much confusion.”
Bennett said the delay in federal funding approval will push back the new schedule by at least two weeks.
The downtown shuttle is being paid for with a Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality grant through the Federal Highway Administration and the Federal Transit Authority. The bus system should receive the grant later this winter. But Bennett expects both agencies and the Maine Department of Transportation to let citylink begin spending the money right away.
“We need approval from all three groups, and that’s what we don’t have now,” Bennett said. “Without that money, we can’t do the downtown shuttle. And the entire schedule depends on the downtown shuttle.”
The new schedule creates two route systems, one in Lewiston and one in Auburn. The two systems are connected by the free downtown shuttle, which will run from the Lewiston terminal to Central Maine Medical Center, then to Auburn’s Great Falls Plaza before returning to Lewiston.
The current system has seven routes that all go through downtown Lewiston.
“We think it’s going to be a very positive change for our riders, but we want to get them prepared for it,” Bennett said. “If we were to get the funding approval next week, I think we’d take a couple of weeks to get people ready.”
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