A $10 million dollar deficit in Rhode Island Transportation Authority’s budget reduced service to University of Rhode Island campus, starting Sept. 27, according to a September press release from RIPTA.
Routes 66 and 69 – which connect URI students between Providence, Narragansett, Galilee and the Community College of Rhode Island – now operate with reduced frequency and partial eliminations of weekend service, according to chart outlining services changes, issued by RIPTA.
Changes in effect on Sept. 27 came after Gov. Dan McKee’s initial state operational budget left a $32.6 million dollar gap in funding for the Rhode Island transit agency, according to RIPTA’s September press release.
Route 69, which connects the URI Kingston campus to Narragansett and Galilee, now operates from 7:35 a.m. to 10:20 p.m. on weekdays, with buses arriving every 90 minutes on weekends, according to a RIPTA chart for the revised bus schedule. This is a reduction from its previous schedule, which operated from 6:15 a.m. to 12:30 a.m. with hourly weekend service. Under the circumstances of McKee’s initial budget proposal, Route 69 was designated to be eliminated entirely.
Route 66 saw weekday frequency reduced from every 35 minutes to every 45 minutes, with weekend service reduced to every 60 minutes, according to a chart issued by RIPTA.
Route 64, which connects Newport to the URI Kingston campus, remains unchanged, according to the same chart issued by RIPTA. Initial proposals would have reduced service from nine weekly round-trips to two.
“Where I work, people come in from the bus all the time,” first-year student Sebastian Molina said. “They grab a quick meal or buy food. There’s always lots of movement. Public transit gets people around.”
On Aug. 25, Rhode Island’s state legislature reduced the funding gap to $10 million after creating an improved budget framework to support the agency, according to a statement issued jointly by McKee and RIPTA CEO Christopher Durand. In this new framework, McKee allocated $3 million to be loaned to RIPTA, which the agency will be required to pay back over the next 5 years.
“It’s really disappointing,” first-year student Max Ramirez said. “I noticed today there’s an hour wait.”
The agency avoided cuts to entire bus lines, but still saw reduction in frequency, segments and cuts to weekend service across 46 of its 67 routes, according to an Aug. 28 article published by the Rhode Island Current. Increased funding avoided bus operator layoffs, but required the elimination of 13 vacant administrative positions. The agency shared it will consider a fare increase; no comment has been made as for specific amount or timeline for implementation.
While the improved budget framework avoided an initially proposed elimination of 16 routes and reduction of 40 more, the transit agency is now tasked with raising revenue over the next five years to sustain current levels of operation, according to Rhode Island Current’s Aug. 28 article.
