Rhode Island’s public transportation system will see big service reductions in September after its board approved cuts on Thursday.
The Rhode Island Public Transit Authority voted to accept a controversial plan put forward by Gov. Dan McKee and RIPTA CEO Christopher Durand that reduces bus service on 46 of its 58 routes and will require RIPTA to tap into the agency’s capital funds for operating expenses.
McKee and leaders from the state legislature have been pressuring RIPTA to cut expenses as the state loses access to federal pandemic relief funding. The state legislature appropriated additional funds to help balance the budget, but the agency was left with a $10 million gap.
In July, RIPTA proposed service reductions to nearly all of its bus routes, including eliminating 17 routes. At the time, RIPTA CEO Christopher Durand said they would result in the largest reduction to bus service in the authority’s 59-year history.
But at its August 7 meeting, the RIPTA Board of Directors postponed voting on service changes after receiving pushback from transit groups and after Gov. McKee sent the board a letter urging members to create a new plan.
While the plan approved Thursday scales back those cuts, transit advocates have remained critical of the service reductions.
“In order to grow ridership and build the robust, convenient, and comfortable transit system Rhode Islanders deserve, we must be expanding RIPTA, not shrinking it,” the Providence Streets Coalition said in a statement on the Aug. 25 plan.
Advocacy group RI Transit Riders placed the blame squarely on McKee.
“While we are pleased that he has (of) late come to the realization that the cuts his budget demanded are too high a cost to stand, we deplore the fact that he waited to the last minute and even now proposes what is not even a half-measure,” Amy Joy Glidden, chair of RI Transit Riders, said in a statement.
A spokesperson for Gov. Dan McKee did not respond to a request for comment.
Worries of a ‘death-spiral’
RIPTA held a series of public meetings on the proposed cuts throughout the summer. Members of the public flooded the meetings to criticize the plans.
At Thursday’s board meeting, dozens of people spoke against the proposed cuts. Again and again, riders and advocates said that while reducing frequency could cut costs, it would make RIPTA less appealing. That, they said, risks reducing ridership and, ultimately, revenue.
John Flaherty of Grow Smart Rhode Island warned that the cuts would cause long-term damage to transit in Rhode Island.
“Cutting service will further reduce ridership farebox revenue,” Flaherty said, “with strong potential to trigger a full-blown transit death-spiral.”
When it came time for board members to vote, several of them said they would prefer not to cut services, but that the budget they were given by the governor and General Assembly necessitated reducing expenses. In the end, the motion to adopt the cuts passed 7-1.
RIPTA’s planned cuts
Unlike the original plan, which reduced service on 58 of 67 routes, the new plan’s more targeted service cuts would primarily affect off-peak hours.
According to an analysis of RIPTA information by The Public’s Radio, the planned cuts include:
- The elimination of service on one or both weekend days on 10 routes
- Reduced frequency on an additional 31 routes
- Service changes of some kind on these routes: 3, 4, 6, 9x, 12x, 13, 14, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 51, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59x, 60, 61x, 63, 65x, 66, 68, 69, 72, 75, 76, 78, 87, 92, 95x, and the R-Line.
The plan also calls for a “multi-year fare adjustment plan,” according to a letter McKee and Durand sent to board members laying out the moves. That likely means fare increases.
The service reductions are scheduled to go into effect on Sept. 27.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
