It’s time for change as the Regional Transportation Program of Maine will be implementing new services in the town of Windham and already has added a convenient new stop on Route 302 for those headed to Saint Joseph’s College in Standish.
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| RTP has added a new stop in North Windham for connections to Saint Joseph's College and made it easier for residents to arrange for same-day transportation for local trips while streamlining daily service for the Lakes Region Explorer between Portland and Bridgton. COURTESY PHOTO |
In Windham, RTP will be implementing a new type of service called Micro Transit. This type of service allows for more on-demand transportation, meaning an individual can call a dispatch center to schedule a ride or they can schedule online from their cell phones as opposed to individuals calling to schedule days or weeks in advance as the current services require. Micro Transit will allow for people to schedule a ride that same day.
This Micro Transit service has already been implemented in other programs such as the Portland Metro and Biddeford Shuttle.
“We are bringing this to the Windham area with the prospect and hope that we can get additional funding to expand this Micro service in many areas of northern Cumberland County,” says DeBeradinis.
Also, Saturday service with the Lakes Region Explorer will be provided year-round. Up to this point, Saturday service was available strictly between Memorial Day and Labor Day. Now, thanks to support from the Maine Department of Transportation, Saturday services will run throughout the entire year.
Additionally, RTP will now have a connection starting from Saint Joseph’s College Campus to the Lakes Region Explorer stop in the North Windham Shopping center.
“This is really exciting; we are looking to really make this something special as we expand the Lakes Region service. That began a couple weeks ago, and we will continue this going into the future,” said DeBeradinis.
Another change in the Regional Transportation Program in Maine has been the discontinuation of the Raymond stop on Route 302 due to a lack of contribution from the town, DeBeradinis said. The program had asked for small contributions from each community to keep the program running at a low rate for the public, and in the absence of that contribution, RTP had to discontinue stopping in the Raymond area on 302 to be fair to the other towns that had made contributions.
“Unfortunately, this year we notified Raymond that we had to discontinue with the understanding that if they could make a small contribution, we would be more than happy to restart our services and would do so immediately,” said DeBeradinis. “RTP remains positive on this regard and hopeful that there could be some reconsideration by the town of Raymond to get their stop back in our service.”
The Regional Transportation Program of Maine is currently looking for drivers, DeBeradinis said. Finding drivers has been a large challenge for the program since the Covid-19 Pandemic and drivers are a necessity to keep the program running largely for the northern Cumberland County area. They are looking for CDL bus drivers as well as volunteer drivers who can use their own cars and will be granted milage reimbursements.
The program currently runs two types of services. Demand Response Service allows riders to call and schedule rides in advance to a series of destinations such as medical appointments, dialysis, college classes, shopping centers and more. The other service, General Public Transportation as exemplified by the Lakes Regional Explorer, currently includes three round-trip runs daily between Bridgton and Portland
Prices for the Regional Transportation Program vary depending upon the type of service, but always remain low and affordable for the public, DeBeradinis said. The most an individual will pay for a one-way trip with General Public Transportation is around $3; and it’s $2 for students and seniors. For the Demand Response service, in many cases riders will ride for free or pay up to $2.50 per trip. Longer trips may be up to $5 depending on how far an individual may need to go.
The Regional Transportation Program has been in operation since 1976 as a not-for-profit agency that focuses on serving the elderly, individuals with disabilities, low-income individuals, students, and other members of the public.
RTP serves 27 towns in Cumberland County including Portland, South Portland, Scarborough, Cape Elizabeth, Westbrook, Gorham, Falmouth, Yarmouth, Freeport, Windham, Standish, Casco, Bridgton and more. <
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