Westbrook City Administrator Jerre Bryant

Gorham Town Council Chairman Michael Phinney

USM President Glenn Cummings

Metro bus

WESTBROOK — Collaborating with the University of Southern Maine, Metro next year will stretch public bus transportation to Gorham, double its service along Portland’s Brighton Avenue and add a route through Westbrook to the Maine Mall.

The expanded bus service, projected to cost up to $4.5 million for new buses and stops, is set to roll in August 2018. Under the plan announced Monday, the expansion would provide public transit to Gorham residents while 8,000 university students would have passes to shuttle between USM campuses in Portland and Gorham. Students will also have unlimited ride access throughout the Metro service area. Public riders will pay fares.

USM, Metro and municipal officials Monday heralded the expansion. “The Transit West Project will be the most significant and exciting expansion of public transportation on the state of Maine since Amtrak Downeaster launched in 2001,” said John Thompson Jr., Metro president.

The collaborative effort saves the university money, said USM President Glenn Cummings. USM currently contracts with a private service to shuttle students between campuses.

Under the arrangement with Metro, the university will pay $400,000 annually.

Cummings said working students will have transportation access to jobs. The service has environmental integrity and reduces stress on parking, he said.

Partners in the deal include the Maine Department of Transportation, the Portland Area Comprehensive Transportation System, the cities of Portland and Westbrook and the town of Gorham.

“It’s a great opportunity for the city of Westbrook,” said Jerre Bryant, Westbrook’s city administrator. “It connects us with our neighbors.”

Last October, the Gorham Town Council agreed to invest $35,000 annually for the next three years to participate in the project. Gorham Town Council Chairman Michael Phinney said Gorham is one of the fastest growing communities in the state and that traffic is a “challenge.” The bus service could “shift” that traffic, he said.

Phinney said the town is “grateful” for the service, but cautioned it is “testing the waters.”

The new Green Line, or “Husky Line,” named for the USM mascot, will run from Gorham through downtown Westbrook to Portland. It’s also aimed at relieving overcrowding on Metro’s Route 4 that links Westbrook and Portland. A restructured Route 4 combined with the “Husky Line” will ramp up daytime transportation from a bus every 30 minutes to one every 15 minutes, according to Metro.

Portland City Councilor Belinda Ray, a Metro board member, said Monday the line will double transit along the Brighton Avenue corridor. Ray said the expansion decreases the need for parking in Portland and is essential for those not depending on an automobile to travel to jobs and appointments.

In addition to the “Husky Line,” the new Blue Line will run from the Riverton/Prides Corner area through downtown Westbrook to the Maine Mall in South Portland. Proposed stops include the Westbrook Community Center on Bridge Street and the growing residential area along Spring Street.

“We never had a route to the mall,” Westbrook Mayor Michael Sanphy said before Monday’s announcement. “Very beneficial to Westbrook.”

Bryant said the Husky run has little financial impact on Westbrook, but the Blue Line will have an added but now unknown cost to the city.

Cummings said after Monday’s announcement that “Westbrook is key to this” and that he’s “hoping Gorham stays strong.”

Muhammad “Humza” Khan, president of the USM student body, in an email from Pakistan, where he is visiting, praised the bus expansion as a bonus for students and will help the university.

“I think the Metro expansion is critical for the growth for USM and fits perfectly into our mission of being a metropolitan university,” Khan said.

The bus service expansion is costly. Greg Jordan, Metro general manager, said last fall that Metro would purchase seven new buses, costing $500,000 each to serve the transit expansion. A Metro press release this week said that the Federal Transit Administration will fund 80 percent of start-up costs with a grant.

It projects annual operating costs to implement the Husky and Blue lines at about $1.7 million.

“While the Transit West Project involves an expansion of public transit to Gorham, it is also a major transit expansion in the urban areas of Portland and Westbrook where improved transit services are sorely needed,” Jordan said in a statement.

Robert Lowell can be reached at 854-2577 or [email protected]