BRUNSWICK — Residents can now get to Brunswick Landing using public transportation, thanks to a new Brunswick Explorer route that also extends to Maine street, according to a recent announcement by Western Maine Transportation Services.
The new schedule went into effect Monday, and will share all four Metro BREEZ stops, according to Craig Zurhorst, community relations director.
The two bus services previously shared a stop at Brunswick Station, and now add both east and westbound stops in front of Walgreens and the mall on Maine Street, as well as an eastbound stop at Bowdoin College on Bath Road, across from First Parish Church, replacing the Explorer’s previous stop at Druckenmiller Hall.
“[The Maine Street service] has been requested for as long as we have been operating the Brunswick Explorer,” which started in 2010, Zurhorst said.
The bus will also go into Brunswick Landing, the former military base that’s in the midst of redevelopment, with stops at Southern Maine Community College’s Orion Hall and at the intersection of Burbank Ave. and Orion Street, near Savilinx and Wayfair. With an hour notice, riders can ask to be picked up at Venture Ave. to use the YMCA and Brunswick Recreation Center. Prior notice is not required for drop-off. There will also be stops available, without notice, at the Brunswick Naval Aviation Museum on Admiral Fitch Avenue. Riders will need to wait on the sidewalk on the museum side of the road and wave the bus down as it approaches.
The bus will enter the landing eastbound at 7:36, 8:36 and 11:36 a.m. and westbound at 1:15 p.m., he said. After 2 p.m. the bus will only be available at Brunswick Landing by request with an hour notice.
The schedule was set after a recent pilot program with Southern Maine Community College, Zurhorst said, and is around when most students are going to and from the campus.
“The indication is that it’s going to be very popular,” he said, adding that they have received requests for stops at the landing for some time. In the past, any ventures into the former naval station resulted in “an upheaval in scheduling.” The pilot with SMCC “taught us better ways of scheduling when people needed to be on campus,” he said.
So far this year, the Explorer has averaged 88 passengers per day, with an average of 94 per day in May, bringing the monthly total to more than 2,000.
“Ridership has continued to go up month over month,” he said, though numbers do tend to decrease when the weather is nicer. They anticipate that the new schedule and routes will increase ridership.
Brunswick’s other bus service, the Metro BREEZ, also experienced higher-than-projected growth since its launch as a pilot program in June 2016. The BREEZ connects Freeport, Yarmouth, Portland and Brunswick.
Ridership exceeded original estimates by 24% and 47%, respectively, in the two years that Brunswick participated, and BREEZ officials intend to make the pilot a regular service, effective Jan. 1, 2020. Since last July, Metro officials estimate that in Brunswick there were 18,747 boardings and 12,929 “alightings,” or people getting off the bus.
Town councilors agreed last month to extend BREEZ service for another six months before deciding if they will opt in permanently.
Updated Brunswick Explorer schedules are available on Brunswick Explorer buses and at the Brunswick Station Information Center. A printable schedule is available at brunswickexplorer.org and on the Brunswick Explorer Facebook page. To request a stop outside of the scheduled time, call (207) 721-9600.
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