AUBURN – A new schedule, a free downtown shuttle and expanded hours of service for Lewiston-Auburn bus riders will begin March 1.

The strings on a $270,000 federal grant were untied Tuesday afternoon, said Marsha Bennett, transit coordinator for the Lewiston-Auburn Transit Committee. That will allow the LATC to begin a new Citylink bus schedule that’s been on hold for four months.

“The big thing for us now is getting the word out,” Bennett said.

Drivers began handing out copies of the schedule Wednesday and Bennett said information kiosks and signs would start going up on Thursday.

Copies of the schedule should also be available at downtown businesses, she said.

The new schedule creates two route systems, one in Lewiston and one in Auburn, and increases hours of operation by about 30 minutes.

The two systems are connected by the free downtown shuttle, which will run from the Lewiston terminal on Bates Street to Central Maine Medical Center, then to Auburn’s Great Falls Plaza before returning to Lewiston.

“We really want people to start using the shuttle,” Bennett said.

“That’s why we wanted to keep it free of charge. It takes people a while to get used to something like this, and so keeping it free helps,” he added.

The shuttle is being paid for with an air-quality grant through the Federal Highway Administration and the Federal Transit Authority.

The schedule was set to start in mid-November but a glitch in the federal funding request delayed it.

The state listed the grant improperly last summer and officials didn’t catch the mistake until the fall.

[email protected]