Everyone knows service cuts are coming to the Rhode Island Public Transit Authority (RIPTA) as its leadership looks to navigate a $10 million budget shortfall, but just how deeply remains under wraps until the agency’s board of directors meets Thursday afternoon.
The agenda for the board’s 1:30 p.m. meeting lists an executive session followed by a “Board Discussion/Potential Vote” on service changes. But no details about the changes were available as of Wednesday afternoon.
That’s left transit advocates like Amy Glidden in the dark ahead of RIPTA’s first legally-mandated public hearing on the proposed cuts scheduled to begin on Monday, July 28.
“Usually we get the cuts before then,” Glidden, the chair of RI Transit Riders, said in an interview Wednesday. “To have a couple of weekdays — that’s not really fair to the public.”
The head of the union representing RIPTA’s bus drivers says employees remain in the dark, too.
“We’re not getting all the answers either,” said Amalgamated Transit Union Local 618 President Walter Melillo. “Obviously things are up in the air. I’m sure they’re going to have some cuts on the table, and it’s going to have a big effect on our members and the public.”
By having a closed-door meeting in the middle of Thursday’s meeting, Glidden said the board is effectively discouraging the public from sticking around through the end of the meeting — depending on how long the executive session lasts.
“It’s harder to get people out to hearings if you don’t know what the cuts are,” she said.
Asked why proposed cuts weren’t listed on Thursday’s agenda, RIPTA spokesperson Cristy Raposo Perry replied in an email to Rhode Island Current that “the board will receive an update on matters tomorrow.”
“Following that, we will share additional information and hold 12 public hearings as scheduled, where public comment will be collected,” Raposo Perry wrote.
Twelve hearings on proposed service changes to be held across the state over six days from July 28 to Aug. 6 were announced in June. At the same time, RIPTA said there will be a proposed fare increase and a list of fixed-route services slated for cuts as RIPTA finalizes its fall service plan.
Bus fare has been $2 per trip since 2010. Before that year, fares typically went up a quarter every two to three years, except for the seven years it remained at $1.25 between 1998 and 2005, according to a chart provided by RIPTA.
RIPTA’s June announcement did indicate the end of the South County Express Beach Bus service on Sept. 6. The route connects Central Falls, Pawtucket and Providence, Woonsocket, North Providence and Cranston to the Scarborough, Wheeler, and Salty Brine state beaches during summer weekends and holidays.
“I anticipate rural service is going to be hurt as well,” Glidden said. “We’re looking at basically turning into a metro system.”
In January, Gov. Dan McKee’s recommended fiscal 2026 state budget left a $32.6 million hole in RIPTA’s budget. 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 reduced the shortfall to $10 million after identifying an additional $8 million in savings from a “favorable price lock” in diesel fuel, along with a positive market performance for the agency’s pension plan. The board also opted to forgo renewing insurance intended to cover medical claims by employees — a move CEO Christopher Durand said saved $480,000 in premiums and fees and five jobs.
But even with the additional savings, Durand told reporters after the board’s June 26 meeting that the budget cuts could impact as many as 90 to 100 employees — reversing all of the gains made following last year’s wage hike.
“We were headed in the right direction,” Melillo said. “I’m concerned. I don’t want to see anyone lose a job.”
McKee and legislative leaders had ordered RIPTA to finish an efficiency study to recommend ways to reduce costs by March 1. But the board of directors was focused on finding a permanent CEO and didn’t commission Canadian engineering consulting firm WSP to conduct the study until March 27.
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 May 30 draft report identified underperforming routes, including the 88 bus, which travels between Simmons Village in Cranston to the Walmart off Plainfield Pike; Route 69, which connects the University of Rhode Island to the Port of Galilee; and the 59X express route in North Smithfield and Lincoln.
A June 16 draft memo suggested fare increases. It also recommended reallocating resources away from providing 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.
This story was originally published by the Rhode Island Current.
