AUBURN — The Twin Cities’ bus service will add stops to Montello and Geiger elementary schools in Lewiston and offer better stops along the Auburn Mall area beginning in August.

Members of the Lewiston-Auburn Transit Committee on Thursday continued to refine a new Citylink bus schedule and route map that will add service on Saturdays and extend service later in the day.

Transit Coordinator Marsha Bennett said the group plans to schedule two public hearings at the end of June, one in Auburn and another in Lewiston. Actual times and locations haven’t been determined, but Bennett said one would be scheduled during the daytime and the other at night.

She hoped to have the route map and stop schedule finalized and out to the public well before the public hearings, Bennett said.

To introduce the Saturday service, the committee has planned a special ribbon-cutting ceremony at 9:15 a.m. on Saturday, Aug. 7.

Citylink will run two Saturday routes between 9 a.m. and 4:15 p.m. The first will run through Lewiston, up College Street and across the Androscoggin River to the Auburn Mall. The second will run to New Auburn, then back through downtown Auburn to the mall.

Weekly bus service will be less frequent, changing from a half-hour to an hour between stops on a route.

Instead, service will last longer. Buses will begin running earlier and will run later. Service will end at 6 p.m. each weekday, about 45 minutes later than it does now.

“What we’re hoping is that we’ll be able to produce a little more reliability into the system,” Transit Committee Chairman Phil Nadeau said.

Bennett said the schedule will add stops at Montello and Geiger elementary schools on the weekly Main Street schedule.

“That was another frequent request, and I had calls this week to make sure these stops were included in the new schedule,” she said.

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