 Greater Portland's Metro Bus services a million and a half riders per year. I spoke with General Manager Dave Redleafson about some new services additions to their 2012 summer youth discount program. David, thanks very much for joining us. It's a pleasure to have you here. Thank you again. Now I want to talk about some of the changes with Metro's bus routes, but before we get into that, in case anybody doesn't know, what's Metro all about? Metro is one of the public transportation providers in the Greater Portland region. We service Portland, Westbrook, Falmouth, and also the main mall portion of South Portland. We are the largest public transportation provider in the state of Maine, with ridership last year in excess of 1.4 million. Wow, yeah, and I know from doing a video about Metro, you're on the cutting edge of a lot of different things. You've got fuel-efficient buses, and you have all kinds of different programs, and maybe we could talk about that a little bit. Before we really get into that, what are some of the route changes that are coming up that you really want to know people to know about? Right. Most importantly, as of May 13th, we have service changes to our number one and our number eight line. And what we're doing is, this has been a public has commented on this, probably in the last three or four years, that they wanted later evening service on the peninsula, and especially up to Monjoy Hill and Easton Promenade. So what we have done is we've taken our existing budget, looked for service efficiencies on our other routes, and applied those efficiencies towards extending out later bus service on our number one line, which now gives us three evening trips, which we never had before. And it's just the immediate reaction from the public over the last week or so has been just nothing but short of positive. They've been, it's long overdue, they want it. And, you know, we've heard from ridership, as well as business establishments, not only in the downtown area, but also up on Monjoy Hill. And they're just ecstatic that it's going to happen within two weeks. That's great that you get in and put it from the public, and then you respond to it. Do you have any like normal ways that you collect input from the public? Well, what we do is we put out ridership surveys. And we have one that's perpetual surveys that we listen to the ridership, but also occasionally we'll take data from our on-off survey, which we conduct every two years. We'll look at trends and then take that data, as well as public input. And we do, you know, also work with our elected officials in the area. And we look at possibly a need. And we take that, analyze all of that data. But most importantly, you know, working with our board of directors and our ridership service committee, we utilize the existing budget. So we're not adding any cost to this particular service addition, but working within our means and, you know, keeping the entire change, although it's an addition, keeping it a cost-neutral solution. I don't live locally, but I learned a lot about Metro from the video that we produced for you. And I understand that you've got a lot of programs to accommodate different people. Like, for example, this summer, there's a youth pass. Do you want to talk about that? Each year for the summer, beginning in June, we offer a youth pass, which is a great deal. $20, you can ride as many times as you want for the months of June, July, and August. And there is a portion of September in the beginning. But that $20 for, you know, the youth pass is incredible, incredible value. And over the last couple of years, we've actually seen an increase in our ridership, I mean, ever so slightly. But, you know, we're trying to make that outreach to, you know, the entire region that this is a great opportunity. The kids are out of school, take advantage of public transportation, but also take advantage of only having to make the one purchase and having that pass available and good for, you know, three-plus months. You know, it's amazing to me that you're all able to offer these kind of discounts and special passes for people when even the basic ridership, I understand from what we've done is subsidized, isn't it? Yes, it is, yes. We have, well, what we've done is, you know, we're working with our board of directors because we are a public sector agency. And it's really for the people of the region. And it's a tax, you know, the tax base is supporting our public transportation. And all it is is taking that and returning the service back, you know, to the residents and visitors to the region. Great, now, if people want more information about, you know, any of the things that we've talked about in any of your programs, because there's a lot to know about Metro, where can they go to get that kind of information? Well, we have our website, you can get that information. And, you know, if you happen to be Monday through Fridays, there is a person always at the other end of that call with, you know, to help you through the basics of getting from point A to point B. I think it's a great service. It's a wonderful system right here in Portland. And I thank you for being on here and sharing that with us. Thank you very much. And it's always been a pleasure to be always being with you too. Thanks.