Island Explorer
The Island Explorer is a seasonal bus system that provides fare-free transportation on and near Mount Desert Island in the U.S. state of Maine. It is operated by Downeast Transportation, and largely intended to serve visitors to Acadia National Park as a means to reduce area traffic within the park and in area communities, including the Schoodic Peninsula. It typically runs from mid-June through the beginning of October, departing from Kennebec Street, to the west of Bar Harbor's Village Green. Operations began in 1999, and in 2019 the service carried over 647,000 passengers. Operations The service began operations in 1999. Regular operations are funded from a variety of sources, including a dedicated portion of Acadia National Park entrance fees from the National Park Service, the Maine Department of Transportation, L.L. Bean, municipal governments, the group Friends of Acadia, as well as local businesses directly served by the service. L.L. Bean's contribution totals $4 million since 2002. To reduce pollution, the bus fleet is powered by propane. 21 new buses were purchased in 2019 to replace a portion of the fleet of 36, the purchase funded by the National Park Service and State of Maine. The service also has four vans