AUGUSTA — Just two days after the Auburn City Council voted 6-0 to contribute $50,000 to a $500,000 passenger rail development plan for Lewiston-Auburn, Republican Gov. Paul LePage and Auburn Mayor Jonathan LaBonte are set to announce a new bus service for the Twin Cities.

LePage and LaBonte, who is also director of LePage’s office of Policy Management, will make the announcement at 3 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 21, at Great Falls Plaza in Auburn.

The announcement will highlight two new bus stations for Auburn, one at Great Falls Plaza and the other near Exit 75 of the Maine Turnpike, according to a release issued by LePage’s office Tuesday.

The bus stations are slated for construction in Auburn in 2016, with new service anticipated to start in early 2017, according to the release.

“Both stations will serve the Lewiston-Auburn fixed-route bus service, CityLink, and provide enhanced regional connectivity through a new Concord Coach Line bus route. The route will begin at Bates College in Lewiston, stop at both new stations, then proceed to the Portland Transportation Center with connections to Boston,” the release stated.

LePage and LaBonte will also be joined by David Bernhardt, commissioner of the Maine Department of Transportation; Peter Mills, executive director of the Maine Turnpike Authority; Harry Blunt, president of Concord Coach Lines; and Phil Nadeau, chairman of the Lewiston/Auburn Transit Committee.

City councilors in Lewiston and Auburn have approved their respective city’s $50,000 share of a passenger rail development plan that will also use $400,000 from the state’s transportation budget.

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