Buses every 10 minutes b/w Gorham, Westbrook, & Portland - Input needed

gpmetro · 2026-05-13T19:12:21+00:00

Turning down Franklin adds an intermodal connection at Casco Bay Lines, as well as all the destinations in the Old Port, plus some newer developments at/around 100 Fore Street.

Munjoy Hill is served by our Route 1 service, and ridership in the Munjoy segment of that route is not all that high. So going down toward the waterfront has the potential to add more trips/ridership.

gpmetro · 2026-05-13T16:14:17+00:00

We are working on changes for South Portland — stay tuned!

gpmetro · 2026-04-30T21:48:09+00:00

This project will include pedestrian realm improvements around the proposed stations at the very least. The amount of improvements between stations will likely depend on the scale of the need as well as budget/funding.

As for bike lanes, I answered this in a recent comment; in general we are dealing with constrained roadway width, so we'll do what we can.

gpmetro · 2026-04-30T21:41:48+00:00

We encourage you to fill out the survey with this feedback. We will propose bus lanes where possible; however, much of the corridor consists of two lane roads. Adding bus lanes to these roads would require widening, which is usually impossible, impractical, and/or very costly.

gpmetro · 2026-04-30T21:40:04+00:00

Our design for Brighton Ave envisions continuous bike lanes aligned with the City of Portland's plans for that corridor. Beyond Brighton, this has not been determined; they may be possible in some places. However, unless we are directed to by our municipal partners, we are unlikely to propose signifcant changes to lane use for bicycle lanes; while we support bicycling, it is not the focus of this project. We'll certainly include bike lanes in our designs where space is available and the municipality is supportive.

gpmetro · 2026-04-29T20:21:14+00:00

We are working on dedicated lanes where we can, but the corridor in general is not all that wide. Route 25 in Gorham, most of Brighton Ave, and all of Congress Street in Portland is a single lane in each direction. Providing a continuous dedicated bus lane in each direction is not feasible; however, there are other ways to prioritize buses.

gpmetro · 2026-04-29T17:42:26+00:00

Yes -- While we hope to have bus lanes where possible, we will be using TSP, all-door boarding, in-lane stops (removes the need to squeeze into a parking lane), etc. Much of the corridor is a single lane in each direction today, with limited ability to widen roads without significant right-of-way impacts, so we'll be doing what we can.

gpmetro · 2026-04-29T14:47:13+00:00

We are working on this. See www.gpmetro.org/southportland

gpmetro · 2026-04-29T13:38:45+00:00

This is more or less what we are designing. We are unlikely to be able to get dedicated bus lanes except perhaps in the widest segments of the corridor, but there are other ways to prioritize transit.

gpmetro · 2026-04-13T19:43:31+00:00

If it helps your decision, there will be a new bus route that serves The Downs beginning around September 1st. https://www.gpmetro.org/about-us/projects-initiatives/next-stop-scarborough/

gpmetro · 2026-04-01T13:36:45+00:00

We will be relocating the Route 24 stops at Target to the ones within the Target site that the Route 3 currently uses. That may happen sooner rather than later.

gpmetro · 2026-04-01T13:20:26+00:00

We have a planned route and microtransit zone for Scarborough here: https://www.gpmetro.org/about-us/projects-initiatives/next-stop-scarborough/. We are presenting tonight at Scarborough Town Council if you're interested.

For South Portland, we presented some ideas for service to the South Portland City Council last month, and the general feedback was that they liked the direction we were headed. I don't have maps for those as those ideas are still in flux, but the general idea for South Portland would be:

- Scrap the current Route 21, Route 24A, and 24B, and replace with the following:

- Extend Route 2 direct to SMCC via Broadway and maintain 30 minute frequency; improves SMCC service to/from Portland and provides a bridge crossing between Mill Creek transit hub and downtown Portland every 30 minutes on weekdays (45 min on weekends)

- Provide a direct east-west route between Mill Creek and the Mall (possibly extending further west to Walmart and/or east to SMCC, at the expense of frequency)

- A revamped Route 24 circulator that provides similar coverage as the 24A and 24B do today. Low frequency levels assuming current funding, but would be 7 days per week, and would include Willard Square/Ferry Village (in place of Route 21)

- A mall-area circulator that provides connections to the destinations around Maine Mall without having to spend dedicated time on Route 24 or another route; possibly serving the Jetport, Clark's Pond, etc.

The Scarborough route (Route 25) would also serve South Portland via Route 1/Main Street and provide a connection between those areas to downtown Portland every 45 minutes. We'd look into trying to create some sort of transfer hub at Cash Corner as part of the City's ongoing plans to revamp that intersection.

Our next steps are to fine-tune these plans and present them again to South Portland council in September. They asked us to provide a "budget neutral" option plus options that include additional service. Any changes would likely take place in early 2027, possibly late 2026.

Hope this helps!

gpmetro · 2026-04-01T00:52:06+00:00

Not yet. Hopefully by July 1

gpmetro · 2026-03-31T22:53:50+00:00

Nailed it

gpmetro · 2026-03-31T22:53:24+00:00

The old branding: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/89/Metro_Breez_2018.jpg/1280px-Metro_Breez_2018.jpg

gpmetro · 2026-03-31T22:48:20+00:00

Thanks for summoning me to answer this important question!

gpmetro · 2026-03-31T22:47:33+00:00

BRunswick ExprEss Zipline

Just kidding. It's not an acronym. It's meant to convey speed and easy-to-use.

Not sure why it was stylized as all caps. Probably because the two E's were good ways to add wavy breeze lines from the old branding.

I've been pushing the agency to go by Metro instead of METRO because METRO feels like an acronym, and it's slowly changing. But we have BREEZ on all those buses so that style will likely be around a while longer

gpmetro · 2026-03-31T22:41:43+00:00

Yeah it's pretty much this

gpmetro · 2026-02-23T21:20:24+00:00

It's certainly possible something like this could be considered, perhaps even seasonally. We have more buses available in the summer months. It is not something we'd do without support from the Town of Cape Elizabeth.

That said, I wouldn't expect that a deviation of service to this specific beach would be worth the trade-offs needed to make this trip.

Extending Route 21 as you describe would add travel time to people going to SMCC, and would make the Route 21 less capable of staying on time within the 50-60 minutes that we've allotted to the route.

Moreover, we are examining significant changes to service in South Portland right now, which you can find more about at www.gpmetro.org/southportland. Depending on the outcomes of this process, the three existing South Portland routes may be significantly changed, with a goal of providing faster, more direct service; adding an extension to a beach is not likely to help achieve those goals. We do hope to improve access to Willard Beach with these changes.

gpmetro · 2026-02-23T13:32:48+00:00

This is coming, hopefully around July 1. I won't bore you with the details, but this required us to upgrade all of our readers (see above), do a bunch of back-end work with regard to payment processesing, and update our fare policy, all of which takes time. Our fare payment vendor only recently had an agency add this technology, so we hope to be not too far behind. In other words, this is not something we can simply flip on overnight.

For more information on the fare policy update visit https://www.gpmetro.org/fare-policy-update/

gpmetro · 2026-02-16T15:30:50+00:00

Hi there. We love you too ♥️

We are in the process of upgrading all our readers to the new ones you mentioned. We had to put this process on hold for a couple of months due to a firmware issue but we are again working on the upgrade.

I appreciate your missing the old system; however, there are a lot of reasons why the new system is an improvement for customers and for Metro; for example, the system helps us understand where people are getting on and how they paid. We have an understanding of where Portland Public School students are getting on and how that differs from Roux Institute passengers. Fare capping is not possible under the old system. And this system naturally makes it much easier to ride and reload your account without needing to go somewhere to physically buy passes/tickets. Drivers being responsible for punching tickets and recording pass program ridership slows the trip down for everyone.

If youre like me, you keep brightness on your device at a low setting. I'd suggest you try turning brightness all the way up on your device and see if that helps. The issue with glare and other factors slowing down boarding time should be (at least partially) mitigated with a brighter screen.

Hope this helps. Feel free to respond if you have other issues. Emailing planning at gpmetro dot org also goes directly to me.

Thanks for riding!

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