PROVIDENCE – The R.I. Public Transit Authority postponed voting on its proposed service cuts on Thursday after Gov. Daniel J. McKee wrote a letter to the agency to draft a better plan to close its $10 million budget gap.
In his letter to the agency dated Thursday, McKee told the state’s transportation agency and its vendor “to develop a new proposal – one that balances new revenue strategies with targeted reductions to low-performing routes.” He added that RIPTA’s current proposal “relies too heavily on across-the-board reductions to routes.”
McKee advises RIPTA should instead:
- Eliminate or restructure the lowest performing routes to better match demand and reduce costs.
- Reduce management and administrative expenses of the authority.
- Maximize federal funding, including the Job Access and Reverse Commute program and indirect cost recovery.
- Implement a fare adjustment, as recommended in the efficiency report – including a fare increase aligned with inflation and a shift toward zone-based pricing, following more than 15 years without a fare change.
“Pending the development of a new, more balanced proposal inclusive of the points above, we are open to continuing discussions about identifying additional short-term resources for the agency,” McKee said.
The RIPTA board voted unanimously on Thursday morning to table the vote on significant service cuts.
"Let's give the board a chance to assimilate [the public] comments and consider them," said RIPTA Chairman Peter Alviti. "This will give us a little bit of breathing room to really, truly consider many of the facts that have been laid out."
The postponement wouldn't last long, Alviti said. "I'm not talking about months. I'm talking about days or a week."
On July 25, the Rhode Island Current reported RIPTA proposed to cut or reduce 58 of its 67 routes, ranging from connections to the Block Island Ferry, weekend service to Roger Williams Park Zoo, and the trolleys connecting Newport’s North End to the city’s beaches.
A combination of 11 routes and zones where riders book trips in advance will be totally eliminated. Thirty routes would see reductions in trip frequency or number of trips. A half dozen routes serving park and rides would be eliminated or have round trips reduced.
There would be no weekend service anymore for nine routes – 4 [Pawtuxet Village/Warwick Neck]; 6 [Prairie/Roger Williams Park Zoo]; 13 [Coventry/Arctic/Community College of Rhode Island]; 14 [West Bay]; 29 [CCRI Warwick/Conimicut]; 55 [Admiral/Providence College]; 71 [Broad St./Pawtucket Ave]; Flex 203 [University of Rhode island/Narragansett/South Kingstown]; and Flex 231 [South Aquidneck].
Three routes – 18 [Providence’s Union Avenue]; 58 [Mineral Spring/North Providence]; and 64 [Newport/URI Kingston] – would no longer have Saturday service.
Five routes – 3 [Warwick Avenue/Oakland Beach]; 6 [Prairie/Roger Williams Park Zoo]; 16 [Bald Hill/New England Institute of Technology/Quonset]; 35 [Rumford/Newport Ave.]; and 63 [Newport’s Broadway/Middletown Shops] – would lose Sunday service.
“Obviously we don’t want to do these reductions, but frankly we don’t have a choice,” RIPTA CEO Christopher Durand told the agency’s board when the cuts were announced. “At this point, we’re finalizing exactly what this all will look like – these changes are substantial.”
In a series of public hearings after the proposal was made, RIPTA riders and residents decried the cuts.
RIPTA’s challenges stem from a $17.6 million deficit in the state budget taking effect July 1 approved by the General Assembly. Lawmakers pared down an initial $32.6 million hole in McKee’s proposed fiscal 2026 budget released in January. The General Assembly eventually propped up RIPTA with nearly $15 million in annual revenue from an additional 2-cent increase in the state’s gas tax and upping the agency’s share of the state’s Highway Maintenance Account.
RIPTA administrators managed to reduce the shortfall to $10 million thanks to what Durand called a “favorable price lock” in diesel fuel, along with a positive market performance for the agency’s pension plan.
Material from the Rhode Island Current was used in this report.
