As buses hummed and beeped around Rhode Island’s central bus hub in Providence Tuesday evening, dozens wearing black and holding candles gathered to mourn an impending loss.
The crowd was not mourning a person, but the state’s bus network. Sweeping cuts to its service set to take effect Saturday will radically transform the state’s public transit offerings, advocates say.
“Dearly beloveds, we are gathered here today to say RIP to RIPTA as we know it,” Liza Burkin, board president of the Providence Streets Coalition, told over three dozen people assembled at Kennedy Plaza.
Starting Sept. 27, the Rhode Island Public Transit Authority (RIPTA) will reduce service by cutting some buses, reducing schedule spans, decreasing frequency, and getting rid of segments on 46 of its 67 lines — primarily impacting weekend and off-peak hours.
Three routes will be eliminated on Saturdays, while another three will no longer run on Sundays or holidays. Four additional routes are being cut from weekends altogether, including the 68 line that links Newport’s North End with the city’s beaches — a service that is fare-free through the end of October.
“This is the Ocean State, and we’re cutting off access to the ocean for our working class on their days off,” Burkin said. “Shame.”
Even the agency’s top-performing route will not be spared. The R-Line — the state’s only rapid bus line which connects Cranston, Providence and Pawtucket — will now run buses every 20 minutes on weekends instead of every 15 minutes during the day and every 30 minutes at night.
The upcoming service changes resulted from an earlier, more extensive plan that had 58 routes facing cuts or reductions to try and stave off a $10 million budget deficit for the agency. That included the complete elimination of 11 routes and zones where riders book trips in advance.
The agency’s board was scheduled to approve those deeper cuts Aug. 7, but postponed the decision after Gov. Dan McKee sent a last-minute letter asking the board to draft a less severe plan.
The result was a “budget framework” announced by McKee ahead of the RIPTA board of directors’ Aug. 28 meeting, where he offered $3 million in federal Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality funds the agency would later have to pay back.
McKee’s office stands by this latest service adjustment, saying that reductions were based on demand data and post-pandemic ridership patterns.
“The governor’s agreement with RIPTA leadership puts the authority on a strong financial footing as we invest in projects like the new multimodal transit center to boost ridership and strengthen the agency — all while protecting taxpayers,” spokesperson Andrea Palagi said in an emailed statement.
While less drastic, advocates argue the upcoming changes will only harm RIPTA and the state in the long run. And if service gets worse, advocates will place blame squarely on McKee.
“Gov. McKee wants us to be grateful for the short-term and insufficient Band-Aids given to RIPTA because it could have been worse than his original proposal as though he is not the person responsible for putting us in this position in the first place,” Bove said.
The deficit was originally $32.6 million when McKee unveiled his recommended fiscal 2026 budget in January — a budget Bove called “callous and cruel.”
Lawmakers 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, much to the dismay of McKee.
“How did the governor respond to that you might ask?” Bove posed to the crowd. “By throwing a temper tantrum and refusing to sign the budget like a middle-schooler not getting their way on the student council.”
That drew a laugh from McKee’s 2026 Democratic primary challenger, former CVS executive Helena Bounano Foulkes, who stood among the crowd.
“This is his budget and budgets are choices — they represent our values,” Foulkes told Rhode Island Current after the rally.
But for now, riders must contend with reduced service, though advocates remain hopeful the cuts can be reversed when lawmakers reconvene in January.
“So many of you have fought alongside us for so long and we have a lot more left in the tank,” Burkin said.
This story was originally published by the Rhode Island Current.
