The latest news out of the Rhode Island Public Transit Authority – that it has to drastically reduce service at night and on weekends and abolish its trolley service downtown – should serve as a glaring signal that the quasi-public agency’s fiscal problems cannot be ignored.
That RIPTA is in financial crisis is nothing new, but these latest proposed cuts would be more dramatic than at any time over the past two decades.
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RIPTA officials say they have no choice to make the cuts in order to make up for a growing budget shortfall.
That may be the case – that drastic cuts are inevitable. But it is now time for the governor and General Assembly to address our public bus service as a priority issue. Eliminating service at night and on weekends is in essence, eliminating the jobs of hundreds of Rhode Islanders.
Remember that for many citizens on the lower rung of the financial ladder, public bus service is the lifeline to employment.
In a letter to the governor, Providence Mayor David N. Cicilline outlined the importance of public bus service – both to individuals and to the capital city’s economic well-being.
“This would have an enormously negative effect upon the social, economic and tourism sectors of our city … and a disproportionate and catastrophic impact on our poorest residents,” Cicilline wrote. “At a time when we should be moving toward mass transit, as progressive cities and states nationwide are doing, this proposal does just the opposite.”
RIPTA officials need to work harder to find possible solutions to their budget shortfall – solutions that have as minimal an impact on customer service as possible. General Assembly members need to study closely the financial ramifications of dramatically reduced public bus service.
Because if it results in more people on public assistance and perhaps a hit on our city’s tourism sector, then maybe a larger taxpayer investment in RIPTA services makes fiscal sense.
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