KEEP THE BUSES ROLLING

A nip is in the air. Many crisp, clear days of fall lie ahead, for the enjoyment of all of us, including increasing numbers of summer visitors staying over for the “shoulder” season. Acadia National Park continues to welcome big crowds on its drives, carriage roads, mountain trails, and the Thunder Hole.

One thing is lacking. The Island Explorer buses, which have carried more than a quarter million passengers again this year from camp grounds and outlying towns and villages to Bar Harbor and points in the park, closed down, as usual, on Labor Day. The free transportation system, with its 17 non-polluting propane-powered buses, has been making it easy to visit the park and has cut back automobile traffic and parking demands all summer. Too bad it had to end for the year.

But next fall, thanks in large part to a million-dollar gift from L.L. Bean through the Friends of Acadia, the buses will continue to run from Labor Day through Columbus Day. That gift supplies half of the additional expense. The rest must come from the hotels and motels and other businesses that already help bear the cost of the system. The shoulder service next year will continue the same seven routes, although probably with reduced frequency. This is important both practically, for transportation, and symbolically, in showing that when Maine advertises its fall tourist season, it is not at the same time shuttering its services.

Another change is also in the works, according to Tom Crikelair, the consultant who designed the original system and was its first manager. The same buses, to be increased to 22, will soon start a commuter service on Mount Desert Island, probably as early as this winter. Morning and evening runs will carry workers and visitors and school students from Southwest Harbor, Northeast Harbor and other points to The Jackson Laboratory and other island employers as well as to Mount Desert Island High School.

Far-sighted planning and business firms’ generosity are putting a big dent in the area’s traffic and parking problems.