“Devastating.”
It was the word echoed by transit advocates and bus riders outside a Providence union hall and again inside a fourth-floor lecture hall at the Community College of Rhode Island’s Warwick campus, as they urged state leaders to find the money necessary to avoid sweeping service cuts being proposed by the state’s bus network.
But it’s unlikely those calls will be answered anytime soon by Gov. Dan McKee and legislative leaders, who still await final recommendations from a long-overdue efficiency study they asked of the Rhode Island Public Transit Authority.
“Without reform, RIPTA will continue to face recurring budget shortfalls and remain on an unsustainable path,” Olivia DaRocha, a spokesperson for McKee’s office, wrote in an email to Rhode Island Current Monday afternoon.
That response came just a little over an hour after RIPTA finished the first of 12 public hearings on its plans to cut or reduce 58 of its 67 routes to make up a $10 million budget deficit — the largest service reduction in the agency’s 59-year history.
Altogether, RIPTA plans to eliminate 17 routes — a combination of 11 routes and zones where riders book trips in advance, along with half a dozen park and ride connections. Should the agency’s board of directors move forward with the recommendations, cuts would take effect Sept.13.
Outside the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 618 hall in Providence an hour before the public hearing, Liza Burkin of the Save RIPTA coalition said the agency’s plan would effectively shrink a statewide bus system into one focused on metro Providence — with some coverage in Newport.
“This proposal before us is not rightsizing RIPTA, it is decimating our public transportation system,” Burkin said. “Make no mistake, if these cuts go through, workers will lose their jobs, students will not get to class, older adults will not be able to get to the doctor or get groceries.”
That fear of job insecurity is certainly real for Jessica Jameson of Warwick, who told RIPTA administrators at the CCRI public hearing that she relies on the Route 29 bus to get to her job at the Warwick Mall — a route that would no longer run on weekends.
“The security of my employment depends on my availability to work on weekends,” she said. “If all weekend service on this route is suspended, I will likely lose my job.”
Rhode Island AFL-CIO Patrick Crowley, who sits on RIPTA’s board of directors, said at the union rally that the proposed cuts were effectively a “tax increase on working-class Rhode Islanders.”
But Crowley has yet to say that directly to McKee, he told reporters afterward. He said he anticipates a discussion with the governor will happen before the board holds a special meeting to approve the cuts on Aug. 7.
The agitation of transit riders has at least reached McKee’s office, his spokesperson confirmed Monday.
“Constituent Services has experienced an uptick in RIPTA-related calls,” DaRocha said in an email. “Approximately one dozen of them referenced changes to specific routes that would impact them; the majority of these changes were related to frequency of bus runs.”
A bumpy road ahead for transit riders
Each of the nearly two dozen riders and advocates who attended Monday’s hearing at the community college lamented the incoming cuts, but did not place the blame on RIPTA.
“This is nothing against you,” Devin Guirales of Central Falls said from his wheelchair. “We know it’s all because of the budget deficit that our governor and state has handed the agency.”
In January, McKee’s recommended fiscal 2026 state budget left a $32.6 million crater in RIPTA’s budget. The General Assembly eventually propped up RIPTA with nearly $15 million in annual revenue from an additional 2-cent increase on the state’s gas tax and by 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 RIPTA CEO Christopher Durand called a “favorable price lock” in diesel fuel, along with a positive market performance for the agency’s pension plan.
Durand told reporters after the Warwick hearing that the agency is still looking for additional ways to reduce service cuts, but said there are very few options.
“The gap is so big,” he said. “To get the kind of savings necessary to balance the budget, it’s cutting a lot of service.”
But Burkin and other advocates say it isn’t too late for state leaders to infuse RIPTA with much-needed cash.
One idea is for the Rhode Island Department of Transportation (RIDOT) to shift part of the $35 million federal carbon reduction funds toward mass transit. Another would be to reroute state transportation funds from highway projects to bus service.
But RIDOT director Peter Alviti Jr., who heads RIPTA’s board of directors, does not intend to redirect any of the department’s funding.
“In accordance with the mission provided by the governor and legislature to make RITPA more efficient and right size the agency, RIPTA’s administration will be making an assessment of all options that are available to meet that mission,” Alviti said in a statement.
No immediate legislative fix
It also looks unlikely that the General Assembly will shore up RIPTA’s finances by reconvening in the fall for a special legislative session.
In separate statements, House Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi and Senate President Valarie Lawson both pointed to the spending solutions already in place in the fiscal 2026 budget. Any additional help could depend on the still-to-be-completed efficiency study.
Although portions of the study were made public in the final weeks of the 2025 legislative session, a final report has yet to be released.
A June 16 draft memo from the study suggested reallocating resources away from bus service in rural communities with low ridership to more populated low-income areas, along with more service for Providence residents who commute to jobs outside of the city.
It also recommended the agency increase its $2-per-ride fare, which has been in place since 2010, but administrators have said they want to conduct a study to analyze impacts of a potential fare increase on “ridership, revenue, and equity.”
“It is not reasonable to commit additional funds until RIPTA completes this study and its current public hearing process in order to develop a plan for a better public transit model,” Shekarchi said in a statement.
Sen. Mark McKenney, a Warwick Democrat who sponsored a failed resolution to fully fund the agency this year, argued at the union press conference that RIPTA is already run efficiently. He added that the state also finds ways to find financial solutions for local businesses, citing the quick tax code change in 2024 to keep Citizens Bank from moving out of state.
“If we come up with that, we ought to come up with funding here,” he said.
This story was originally published by the Rhode Island Current.
