AUBURN — Managers of Citylink, the Twin Cities’ bus system, will put the operations contract up for bid this fall.
Marsha Bennett, transit coordinator for the Lewiston Auburn Transit Committee, said the contract with Western Maine Transportation expires next year. Members of the committee agreed Thursday to begin taking bid proposals this fall for a new five-year contract.
“We’re going out to bid for a service, so it’s pretty straightforward: This is our system and we need an operator for the whole thing,” Bennett said.
The new five-year contract would begin October 2013.
Western Maine currently operates Citylink’s system, which includes a fleet of 10 buses covering nine routes on weekdays and two routes on Sundays. Western Maine also operates the system’s on-demand ADA para-transit system.
“They are on their second five-year contract with us,” Bennett said. “They came on board in 1993. We’ve had a couple other agencies ask about the service over the last 10 years and about going out to bid. But we’ve never had that many.”
Western Maine also operates para-transit services in the Norway and South Paris area, the Rumford, Mexico and Dixfield area, Jay and Livermore Falls, Farmington, Wilton and Lisbon. Western Maine also runs the Mountain Explorer service between Bethel and Sunday River Ski resort and the Sugarloaf Explorer in the Carrabassett Valley.
LATC, composed of members appointed by the Auburn and Lewiston city councils, owns the fleet of buses and manages the routes, hours of operation and planning for the Citylink route.
Western Maine maintains the buses, employs the drivers and mechanics and provides day-to-day management of the bus system.
According to the current contract, the transit committee pays Western Maine $1.07 million in 2012 to operate the bus system and $143,000 to operate the para-transit system.
Bennett said the transit committee put the Citylink contract out for bid in 2008 and received three proposals.
“Last time, three proposals were submitted,” Bennett said. “They were the low bidder, but actually we felt they really were the best qualified, too.”
Bennett said the committee will begin working with the document that outlined the bid process in 2008 in the next few months, writing a new bid process.
“They’ll refine the RFP they used last time, to update it,” Bennett said. “Then, they’ll be meeting with both city councils once there is a draft of the RFP, so the city councils can weigh in on it.”
Bennett said she hopes to have the new contract in place and ready to be signed by February 2013.
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