Just after 9 a.m. on Friday, Barry Miller was the only passenger on the Lakes Region Shuttle.

It was the first ride on the 22-seat bus for the Portland-based visual artist and musician. Miller, who had stayed at a friend’s home in Raymond the night before, said he would not have made the trip if it weren’t for the shuttle.

“If this bus wasn’t here I wouldn’t have stayed at Bill’s last night,” Miller said. “That’s the real value here. There’s no way I would ask him to drive me back into Portland. It’s only $3.”

After nearly six months of service, it appears that the Lakes Region Shuttle has acquired a small, but loyal, band of adherents. Dan Goodman, the customer and community relations director for Regional Transportation Program, the nonprofit that operates the shuttle, said that although ridership has increased in recent weeks, the bus service is still something of an open secret.

Around 9:45 a.m., Miller disembarked on Elm Street in Portland, in search of a haircut. It was time for Rick Zeegers, a Naples resident and one of the shuttle’s four part-time drivers, to refuel.

Zeegers, who abandoned “semi-retirement” in order to drive the shuttle, said between 10 and 19 passengers will board his average round-trip from Naples to Portland and back.

“Maybe the ridership, there’s not a volume there yet, but the people that do ride it really, really depend on that bus,” Zeegers said. “There’re people that come down to Windham to get their groceries.”

“It’s an ongoing process,” Goodman said. “We still have a lot of work to do to get the word out and let residents of Greater Portland and the Lakes Region know that there’s a great public bus right in their back yard.”

Yet, Goodman said the shuttle is already benefiting the region.

“It’s increasing local customer base for services, medical facilities, shopping,” he said. “It’s enhancing mobility options for residents who can’t drive or who don’t have a car or who chose not to drive their own car.”

The Lakes Region Shuttle runs back and forth on Route 302 between Naples and Portland every weekday, starting in Naples at 6 a.m., and ending there at 8:20 p.m. The stops include the American Legion Hall in Naples, the Clyde Bailey Drop-In Center in Casco, Sunset Variety in Raymond, the cinema entrance at the North Windham Mall, Prides Corner at 33 Elmwood Ave. in Westbrook, and Metro Pulse in downtown Portland. The bus, which carries free wireless Internet, has room for two wheelchair users and nine standing passengers, as well. One-way fares cost $3, all-day fares $5, 10-ride passes $25, and one-month passes $75.

As Zeegers idled the bus at the Portland Metro stop Friday morning, he walked outside. A man asked him to explain the basics of the Lakes Region Shuttle.

Brittany Morrow, a house cleaner from Portland, boarded the bus with her young daughter, Braelyn. Every Friday, Morrow said, she takes the shuttle to Naples, where her husband, William, lives with two of their children.

“I love to be able to go up there and get away from the city,” Morrow said.

Before the shuttle began service on Nov. 25, Morrow, who doesn’t have a car, would pay friends $20 in gas for a weekend round-trip to Naples. Since Morrow learned about the bus in January, she has been paying $6 for the weekend trip. Her husband, who visits her in Portland every Monday, has seen similar savings, Morrow said. They save $40 collectively each week, thanks to the shuttle.

Morrow said the bus makes her life “100 percent” easier.

In Westbrook, Linda Ash boarded the bus for the first time. Hoping to visit her niece and grand-nephew in Harrison, Ash had taken the Metro Bus to Prides Corner the last stop on that route. Ash was not aware of the Lakes Region Shuttle until it showed up.

“I was going to hitchhike,” she said. “That was perfect timing.”

Ash and Morrow began to chat, eventually determining that Ash was Braelyn’s distant cousin.

Was Ash glad that the shuttle appeared?

“Oh, you know it,” she said. “It’s dangerous out on the roads.”

Rick Zeegers, a Naples resident, drives the Lakes Region Shuttle part time. Zeegers said between 10 and 19 passengers board his round trip from Naples to Portland and back.