Waldo Community Action Partners (WCAP) has been providing demand response public transportation services in Waldo County since the community action agency first launched its public transportation program in 1972, under the name Sea-ME and later Waldo County Transportation Program.
Following an agreement to assume public transportation services in the areas of MDOT Region 5 in late April, WCAP started taking measures to expand its transportation services outside of Waldo County, into Knox, Lincoln, Sagadahoc Counties, as well as the municipalities of Brunswick and Harpswell.
With a service area encompassing much of the mid-coast, it only seemed natural that Waldo County Transportation Program lay to rest a name that it had outgrown and adopt a new one; Mid-Coast Public Transportation (MCPT).
“When WCAP agreed to be the Maine Department of Transportation’s Regional Provider for the area of Transit Region 5, we knew that in order to be more inclusive of those counties outside of Waldo County, we were going to have to change our identity,” said Waldo County Transportation Program’s Director, Brent Stapley. “That change is more than just a name change. It has become our new reality that we are we are serving more than just Waldo County as we have faithfully done for decades. We now need to assess and address the public transportation needs of three other mid-coast counties and two new municipalities.”
“Mid-Coast Public Transportation”, which better represents the program’s expanded catchment area, also gives a nod to WCAP’s MaineCare non-emergency transportation brokerage, Mid-Coast Connector. “We needed a name that all of Region 5 could relate to and it makes sense that WCAP use the same identifier for both of its transportation entities,” Stapley said.
