The Cooperative Alliance for Seacoast Transportation is making public transit more accessible for Dover residents, offering a new bus route that will service downtown and Sixth Street with 25 stops. Coast Route 33 began operating on Dec. 1 with 12 inbound and 12 outbound trips running Monday through Friday.

Outbound buses on Route 33 leave from the Dover Transportation Center on Chestnut Street and proceed through downtown on Washington and Main streets before turning onto Sixth Street and heading to the NHDOT Park & Ride at exit 9 on Indian Brook Drive. From there, the bus continues along Sixth Street to Education Way and Venture Drive, where Measured Progress and Foster’s Daily Democrat are located. The route ends at the Strafford County Complex on Country Farm Road.

The first outbound bus leaves downtown at 7:05 a.m. and the last inbound bus departs the courthouse at 7:10 p.m. There are 18 regular stops on the route and seven “on call” stops, which passengers must schedule by calling COAST 30 minutes in advance. The route is 6.7 miles one-way, with stops approximately every quarter-mile. The 30-foot bus seats about 28 people. For a full schedule, visit www.coastbus.org.

Rides on the new route are free through December. Beginning Jan. 2, tickets will cost $1.50 per trip at regular stops and $2 at on call stops. The prices reflect a system-wide fare increase of 50 cents that becomes effective in January. Seniors and disabled passengers ride for half price. Passengers can also purchase monthly passes for $52, or 15-ride passes for $20.

Part of the Dover FastTrans bus system, Route 33 is the first of three new routes COAST plans to add in Dover. The second route, expected to begin operating in two to four months, will cover Portland Avenue, servicing recreational facilities like the public pool and hockey rink. The third route would be added at a later date and would cover the southwestern portion of the city.

The new bus route does not come at any cost to taxpayers. City officials planned to travel to the Statehouse in Concord on Friday, Dec. 5, to talk to the Congestion, Mitigation and Air Quality committee about securing more federal funding. But even if they are denied, “We’re projecting we can run the first two routes for approximately 18 to 24 months with the CMAQ funding we have available,” said COAST executive director Rad Nichols.

Route 33 is expected to significantly reduce traffic congestion in downtown Dover. Nichols said he hoped the bus would initially carry seven passenger trips per hour and increase from there with time. He noted that the trolley system in Portsmouth started with similar numbers but has since doubled. Noting that about 130,000 people rode the trolley in Portsmouth last year, he called the system a “phenomenal success” that he hopes to replicate in Dover.

Nichols also eventually hopes to add a bus route that will run directly between Dover and Portsmouth on the Spaulding Turnpike (Route 16). He said COAST applied for federal funding for such a route in the late 1990s and secured about $650,000, but that money must be matched 20 cents to the dollar with state and local funds.

“We can’t get that project off the ground because we don’t have state or local funds to match the federal dollars,” Nichols said. “As soon as we’re able to solve that issue, it’s one of our highest priorities to get that service started.”

COAST also recently added four new buses to its fleet for COAST Route 2, which runs between Portsmouth, Newington, Dover, Somersworth and Rochester. The 40-foot buses have a sleek and modern exterior, a GPS-based annunciation system to announce stops, enhanced features for disabled passengers and improvements for bus operators. Nichols said the new buses are more efficient and will save the city thousands of dollars in the long run. They can each seat 38 people.