AUBURN – Beginning in August, Citylink will run buses four times daily from Great Falls Plaza to Central Maine Community College.

“We’ve been working with the college to come up with a solution that doesn’t cost the cities or the college,” said Marsha Bennett, transit coordinator for the Androscoggin Transit Resource Center, which operates the Citylink system, serving Lewiston and Auburn.

Instead of adding buses, system officials will divert the northbound Auburn Mall bus at 7:30 and 8:30 a.m. each weekday.

“We don’t have as much traffic on that route at that time, so it makes sense,” Bennett said. The bus will pick up passengers at Great Falls Plaza, drive to Shaw’s on Center Street and then on to the college. It will stop at Wal-Mart on the way back to the plaza from the college, she said. The Gamage Avenue bus will be diverted to serve the college at 10:30 a.m. and 4 p.m., Bennett said.

“The Gamage route is probably the only one we run that doesn’t have a specific destination, like a huge apartment complex or a shopping center,” she said. That bus will continue to go to the Spring Street Hannaford store from Great Falls Plaza before turning north and going to the college.

“We’ve been able to adjust our other scheduled routes and provide service without having to increase our budget, and that was very important,” Bennett said.

The center began operating a new schedule in March. The school had asked to be included last winter, after a new schedule was drawn up.

“They’ve been very understanding, while we worked all of this out,” Bennett said.

May changes

The center also will start running the downtown connection between Lewiston and Auburn a few minutes earlier each morning, Bennett said.

The shuttle leaves Lewiston’s Oak Street bus station at 7:25 a.m. now for its first trip. That was too late for some riders.

“So now, we’ll start at 7:15 a.m. to get riders to the Auburn buses,” Bennett said.

New Citylink monthly bus passes are also on sale, for $30 per month for unlimited bus rides, she said. The new passes and the changes to the downtown shuttle schedule both begin in May.

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