BRUNSWICK

Brunswick Explorer riders are going to be seeing expanded service with the addition of an 8 a.m. eastbound run.

Craig Zurhorst of Western Maine Transportation Services said the expanded service is due to requests from riders who wanted to use the service to commute to work in the morning.

“We want to become increasingly relevant to all the people who are using the Brunswick Explorer in terms of hopefully getting them to employment, possibly education,” Zurhorst said.

Zurhorst said they are looking into expanding service to Brunswick Landing, due to the presence of schools and an increasing number of workers at the former base. Currently, the service will stop at Brunswick Landing on demand, however the addition of a loop dedicated to the former base will add an extra 10 minutes to the run, making it detrimental to a timely regular service.

In all, Zurhorst said ridership has been consistent, increasing and people appear to be happy with the service.

Many of the Explorer riders will have more reason to be happy as the original busses have finally been transferred over to Western Maine Transportation and will hopefully be back on the roads in Brunswick sometime soon.

“Currently, we’ve been running our Mountain Explorer busses down there and they’re large and it’s hard to get into those busses without the use of the wheelchair lift if you have any problems in ambulation,” Zurhorst said.

Zurhorst said some riders have had to make other transportation accommodations and have been making regular calls to the Brunswick station, asking when the busses will return.

“We’re hopefully only a couple weeks away from that but we don’t want to get people too hopeful too quickly,” Zurhorst said, “it’s never a good thing to have a bus parked for a long time so they’re going through them and they’re going to make them work very well again.”

Fares are exact change only at $1 per boarding or $3 for a day pass with the first bus leaving eastbound from Mallard Pond at 7 a.m. until 4:45 p.m. Westbound trips begin at Sweetser at 9 a.m. and run until 3:54 p.m.

According to the service’s website, “The Brunswick Explorer is a public-private partnership with funding provided by the Federal Transit Administration, Maine DOT, Community Transportation Association of America, the Town of Brunswick and other local partners including Sweetser, Bowdoin College,

Mid Coast Hospital, United Way of Mid Coast Maine and Brunswick Housing Authority.”

The service had been run by Rockland-based Coastal Trans for 33 years. However, changes to the state’s MaineCare system, of which Coastal Trans was a transportation provider, and competition from other, private transportation companies led to a cease of operations.

Auburn-based Western Maine Transportation took over the Explorer in April.

dmcintire@timesrecord.com

Riding the Explorer

• Fares are exact change only at $1 per boarding or $3 for a day pass with the first bus leaving eastbound from Mallard Pond at 7 a.m. until 4:45 p.m. Westbound trips begin at Sweetser at 9 a.m. and run until 3:54 p.m.