Rhode Island to Bus Riders: "Go F*ck Yourselves"

It’s morning in Providence, and certainly not a good one. Yesterday afternoon, 24 July 2025, the Board of Directors of the Rhode Island Public Transit Authority (RIPTA) voted to approve and seek public comment on service cuts to take place this fall as a result of the Rhode Island legislature’s disappointing failure to fully close the $32 million budget deficit handed down to RIPTA by Governor Dan McKee in his 2026 Budget. While the legislature provided $15 million in additional yearly funding (as opposed to the stopgap measures of past years), roughly $18 million more was needed. RIPTA leadership, led by CEO Chris Durand, were able to save an additional $8 million in a “favorable price lock” on diesel. Still, layoffs, service reductions, and fare increases remained on the table: yesterday, these came to fruition

The announced cuts are more devastating than many could have imagined—the largest in RIPTA’s 59-year history. 16 routes will be completely eliminated, entire route segments will be chopped, most routes will have their headways increase dramatically (some by almost double—effectively halving the service), and weekend service will become a joke. My neighborhood of Fox Point, along with its vibrant Wickenden and Ives streets commercial corridors, will lose all weekend bus service as the East Side segment of the 92 becomes the weekday-only 91—simultaneously killing Providence’s only east-west crosstown route. And even with these cuts, a fare increase and layoffs are still being considered.

How did we even get here? Last year, the General Assembly approved a one-time, $15 million dollar allotment to RIPTA to close the $18 million deficit the governor handed down last January on the condition it complete an “efficiency study” to receive further funding in the future. However, the consultant for the study, WSP, wasn’t commissioned until 27 March 2025, well into the legislative session. The RIPTA board—led by scandal-ridden Director of Transportation Peter Alviti— ostensibly repeatedly delayed the study until finding a permanent CEO following the resignation of Scott Avedisian in April 2024. At its outset, it was doubtful it would be completed on time: as crunch time approached, it was clear it wouldn’t. Despite this, there were still many legislative paths forward to plug RIPTA’s funding gap. The Save RIPTA campaign led by the Providence Streets Coalition introduced a legislative package of seven bills aimed at providing long-term sustainable funding for RIPTA.

But legislative leaders—especially Speaker Shekarchi—used the efficiency study’s delay as an excuse to deny RIPTA the proper amount of funding to avoid these recently announced service cuts. At a Senate Finance Committee meeting on 8 April 2025, Senator Lou DiPalma, the committee chairman, chided RIPTA CEO Chris Durand—who has overseen a massive, positive turnaround in morale and service at RIPTA—for the RIPTA board not starting the efficiency study sooner. But Senator Sam Zurier was quick to point out who the chair of the RIPTA board is—none other than Director Peter Alviti (who was also the only testimony—written, at that—against bills to increase RIPTA funding being heard that day).

At the heart of the matter, though, legislative leaders should know that RIPTA did not need yet another efficiency study. Study after study—including the most recent—shows that RIPTA is one of the most efficient transit agencies in the nation, providing more trips per dollar than many of its peers despite chronic underfunding. Having them spend thousands of dollars to complete an efficiency study every few years is, in fact, incredibly inefficient and wasteful. Yet, legislative leaders remain convinced that the inefficiencies lie in its operations. In an interview just three days ago, Speaker Shekarchi seemed clueless and dismissive of RIPTA’s looming catastrophe, blaming the problem on its operations. While, to his credit, he admitted he “doesn’t know what the answer is” and “isn’t in the public transportation business,” he also refuses to listen to those who are.

At the end of the session, every Save RIPTA bill died in committee (or, as the General Assembly likes to call it, “held for further study”). A last-minute attempt by Senator Zurier to flex highway funds to save RIPTA—a motion with bipartisan support—failed in a 16 to 20 vote, with Senate President Val Lawson, and Senators Bissailion and McKenney (both of whom were lead Senate sponsors on Save RIPTA bills) voting against it. The Assembly did provide $15 million in the form of a 2-cent increase on the gas tax—a method of questionable stability as EV adoption increases. But even this disastrously low level of funding was too much for Governor McKee, who refused to sign the budget over it. While he said he was opposed to the tax increase, his hostility towards RIPTA is palpable; it seems he would have preferred to kill the agency outright.

Thee negative economic impact this will have on the entire state will cost far more than filling RIPTA’s budget deficit. Rhode Islanders will lose their jobs, access to services, healthcare, and more. Choice riders—those who may have a car but choose to take the bus—will re-enter the roads, worsening traffic and greenhouse gas emissions statewide. Providence Public School students will face harder trips to school, potentially reversing the progress made on chronic absenteeism. Jobs and talent (including lifelong Rhode Islanders) will leave and look to other states with better transit —something explicitly stated by Pawtucket-based (for now) Hasbro. Already, 90% of Brown students leave Rhode Island after graduating—but as it becomes increasingly worse to live here, that should come as no surprise.

The Rhode Island legislature has chosen to make it harder to live in the Ocean State. They have chosen to worsen people’s lives and completely jeopardize its binding Act on Climate goals. As of writing, there looks to be no plan to prevent these cuts. It is unlikely that the Governor who wanted to completely kill RIPTA and the legislature that decided to mutilate it first instead will open a special session in order to save it. The current state of the federal government provides little hope of a saving grace from that avenue. Attorney General Peter Neronha could, hypothetically, fight for more funding under the auspices of the Act on Climate’s binding goals—but has hitherto been mum on RIPTA service.

RIPTA’s funding and looming service cuts are a deeply personal issue for me. Before coming to the Ocean State, I lived in a car- free community: I never learned how to drive and don’t own a car, so RIPTA is essential for me to get around the beautiful state we get to call home. Without it, it can be prohibitively expensive to get around Providence, Pawtucket, and Cranston alone for necessities from groceries to medication—not to mention making leisure trips to towns like East Greenwich, Narragansett, and Newport nearly impossible.

Aside from my personal needs, I am an Urban Studies concentrator at Brown and primarily focus on transit: I even had the opportunity to intern at RIPTA for a year—an incredibly formative experience I wouldn’t trade for the world. Inventorying many of its over 3,600 bus stops showed me corners of Rhode Island I wouldn’t have seen without RIPTA, showcasing the beauty and surprising diversity of our tiny state. Not only that, but the agency changed before my eyes after funding was provided for the 2025 Fiscal Year, Chris Durand became CEO, and the Metro Connector study picked up. RIPTA’s headquarters was electric, and it seemed to be such an exciting time to be working in transit in Rhode Island. I certainly don’t envy those who have my old position now.

Rhode Island can provide the world-class transit system it deserves: that the legislature not only decides not to, but chooses to go backwards, is simultaneously embarrassing, infuriating, and saddening. No senator who voted against funding RIPTA deserves to be sent back to Smith Hill come 2026. Neither does Joe Shekarchi, and especially not Dan McKee and his goon Peter Alviti. Until we clean house in our government, RIPTA and the lives of Rhode Islanders will continue to be worse off than our neighbors