Dozens gathered outside the Rhode Island State House on Tuesday afternoon to protest the expensive and unwanted effort to move the state’s main bus hub out of Kennedy Plaza and support funding for improved RIPTA (Rhode Island Public Transportation Authority) services. The FY2027 Rhode Island State Budget, recently passed out of the House Finance Committee, is not expected to offset the service cuts RIPTA implemented after last year’s budget passed.
The Kennedy Plaza Resilience Coalition organized the protest and press conference to support S2680/H7464, sponsored by Senator Samuel Bell and Representative Enrique Sanchez, which would save taxpayer money by terminating the expensive and unwanted project to move the bus hub from Kennedy Plaza to a site next to the Providence Train Station.
“The House budget bill released on May 28 contains some commendable funding for RIPTA, but still not enough to fully restore the McKee bus cuts from last September,” said Randall Rose from the Kennedy Plaza Resilience Coalition. “With RIPTA facing inadequate funding and riders suffering from being unable to get to work and appointments, we shouldn’t be wasting huge sums on a proposed relocation of the central bus hub to a place further away from where bus riders are trying to go. The projected costs of relocating the bus hub are huge, and taxpayer money shouldn’t be wasted on a project that would make Rhode Island’s bus system worse.”
Here’s the video:
Senator Samuel Bell (Democrat, District 5, Providence)
“Moving the bus hub is a really dumb idea. Buses should be about convenience, and when the bus hub is somewhere that’s very inconvenient, it’s a lot harder to use. In the middle of downtown, it’s accessible. It gives people an option, a way to get into downtown. It’s centrally located. It’s convenient. It brings vitality and life. If moved, it would suck a lot of the energy out of downtown, be far less convenient, and be far less integrated with our transit services.
“We all know the reason why they want to move it. It’s because some wealthy businesspeople downtown don’t want to look at poor people. They’re like, “Ew, buses.” It’s gross, wrong, classist, and we in the General Assembly should not waste the people’s money on such a stupid idea.
“It’s important to talk about the way this is being done because it’s extra wasteful. The project will be privatized. This is Rhode Island. We privatize everything. We’ve gone privatization on steroids here. We’ve even privatized the financing, which is one of the dumbest kinds of privatization because we get much better interest rates than private financers. We’re letting them profit off the project in the future with one of these stupid privatized financing deals. These deals always go badly everywhere. Why the hell are we doing this to RIPTA? I don’t know. It’s just dumb. It’s just idiocy.
“We also need the context. Right now, this state is in the middle of making some really cruel budget cuts. We’re partially underfunding our schools again. We had a legislative budget released that somehow put even less money for our schools than Dan McKee recommended, which is crazy. I don’t know who came up with that idea.
“We are also making brutal, devastating cuts to Medicaid in our state budget. Currently, in the draft budget proposed by the House, if it’s not changed soon, everyone on Medicaid using GLP-1s for weight loss will be kicked off them. The Medicaid cuts are going to devastate psychotherapy services: mental healthcare is just going to be wrecked. And they’ve given [our next governor] Daniel McKee or Helena Foulkes blanket authorization for more Medicaid cuts.
“We’re blowing up our climate incentives. We’re devastating a lot of the core programs that matter to people. And then we’re wasting money on a fantasy project [moving the bus hub] because some rich people feel uncomfortable seeing low-income people. It’s messed up, and it’s wrong.
“That’s why we’ve got to end this project and instead, reinvest in Kennedy Plaza. Let’s provide fair services, decent bathrooms, and celebrate our beautiful transit hub. Let’s invest in RIPTA, and not in the tiny, little, piddling ways that we’ve done. Make it a great service. Get rid of the fares that drive many people away from it. Increase the frequency so that it’s reliable and safe. It’s going to save money because driving cars is far more expensive for our state. So let’s do it. To undo something really stupid is one of the best policy ideas, and that’s what we should do here. If we don’t win this year, we need to keep up the fight because we cannot afford to make really stupid decisions here in our state.”
Hector Perez-Aponte, Racial Justice Policy Analyst at the Economic Progress Institute
“The Economic Progress Institute rejects any plan involving the relocation of the bus hub out of Kennedy Plaza. We oppose it, and it should be plainly obvious why. A little history for you. Before it was a bus hub, Kennedy Plaza was a trolley hub. Before it was a trolley hub, it was a train station. The very infrastructure of Kennedy Plaza has been built around public transit. Underneath Kennedy Plaza are layers of our transit past, and our state’s transit future is on the surface, if we’re ambitious.
“Advocates have come out year after year asking for improvements to our bus hub, and not only have your requests been ignored, but you have been met with a plan not to improve the bus hub, but to move it. If this is not what the people want, why move it? If the people, after such a resounding ‘No,’ say they don’t want the bus hub move, I have to wonder why it is still planned. Maybe somebody can talk to me after I’m done here and explain why this plan makes sense.
“I’ve been advocating for transit funding for a few years now, and the common thing I hear is that transit is too expensive. Some of you probably heard about the cuts last September. Thankfully, some of those have been reversed. But which is it? Is transit too expensive, or can we handle the cost, a cost that is between $200 and $500 million? It is a cost borne by people’s pockets, so if people say ‘no,’ it should not be moved.
“We’re here today because we believe in transit equity - that every person deserves easy access to public transit and that it should be convenient to everyone. If public officials ignore this, they ignore the people. I have to wonder what empowers public officials to think this way?
“Another argument I hear against public transportation is that nobody rides the bus. I ride the bus. Am I to believe that the buses I’ve ridden are filled with nobodies? In 2024, 217,000 new Wave users were recorded. 76,000 students were recorded riding the bus to school. 38,000 fixed route users were recorded per month. In 2024, RIPTA surveyed with 5,500 respondents. 62% of those respondents were people of color. 57% of respondents had a household income below $25,000. I’m seeing a pattern here, and I have to wonder: If public officials are not paying attention to the people who ride the bus, who are they paying attention to?
“The people who have a vested interest in moving the bus hub are interested in making a dollar. They’re not interested in public democracy. They’re not interested in hearing the voices of the people. While our public officials are pointing fingers at Washington, asking what’s happening to our nation’s democracy, I’m wondering what’s happening here. I’m wondering what’s happening to our state’s democracy. If we don’t have a state democracy, what do we have? Public officials should be listening to you. They should be listening to you because riders matter, because you matter. Thank you for being here today.”
Janice Douglas, Kennedy Plaza Resilience Coalition
“I represent the seniors. I’m going to be 70 years old this summer, and a lot of us are riding the bus. For health reasons, vision, and mobility issues, we need to have the bus hub right where it is. It’s centrally located. It’s very near the train station, and we need to have that kind of access. The bud hub doesn’t need to be moved.
“It is going to cost a lot of money for RIPTA, which is already having financial struggles, to reprint all of those bus schedules. The bus schedules will have to be rewritten, and printing costs are very high. RIPTA doesn’t need another bill. We need to keep the bus hub right where it is. It’s centrally located. Everyone who rides the bus is satisfied that it’s there. We need to ignore those who have other financial agendas and keep our bus stop right where it is.”
Terri Wright, Rhode Island’s Poor People’s Campaign
“Whose house? Our house. Whose city? Our city. I am a member of Rhode Island’s Poor People’s Campaign. We advocate for and fight for moral revival and the survival of poor and low-income earners and their families. We lift from the bottom up, not from the median, where wealth lives.
“Transportation justice is public health. Take a moment and look at the person standing next to you: We are the heartbeat of the city. We are the workers, students, seniors, homeless, and families who keep Providence moving every day. We are not the LLCs, the wealthy, the mayor, or the governor.
“It’s environmentally important to ensure that public transportation follows our city’s climate justice plan for zero carbon emissions by reducing pollutants in the air we all breathe. Affordability, cleanliness, and accessibility are important components of transportation justice and honor our health and well-being. This is where our focus should be.
“Every generation of Rhode Islanders has a personal connection to Kennedy Plaza. Many of you may remember what riding the bus was like before it was even called RIPTA. That was before my time, between 1951 and 1966. Back then, it was called United Transit Company, with the old green-and-white buses that ran back and forth through the square we call Kennedy Plaza today. Whoever walked downtown back then or rode the bus to the city was greeted by those mature, massive shade trees that protected our working-class commuters and residents from the brutal summer heat, but over the years, city politicians chopped them down, one by one. Today, there may be four to six of those original trees left.
“This is the heart of Providence, where the infrastructure of the city is crumbling and collapsing before our eyes, policy by policy by policy. Evicting buses is the opposite of equity.
“They claim they want a cleaner plaza, so I ask, whose health are they catering to? I’ll answer my own question: They are catering to the wealthy corporate executives who don’t even ride the bus. That is not equity. That is environmental injustice and environmental violence, all while treating RIPTA riders like a predatory landlord treats a tenant.
“They call the plaza an eyesore because they want the homeless out of downtown. Make no mistake about it: A plan is in motion to cater to the wealthiest, biggest money-generating landlords. They price people out of housing, and now they’re trying to evict them from public transit centers and hubs because they don’t want wealthy corporations to see the crisis they created and neglected to fix.
“In many cities, the main bus hub and services are located downtown or near City Hall. This ensures that every resident has equal access to jobs, shopping, hospitals, and their local government. Moving the hub goes against national models by favoring and serving private interests and real estate.
“Give us shelters, give us shade. Stop the corporate real estate! Give us shelters, give us shade. Stop the corporate real estate!
“We are facing a devastating housing crisis. Over 500 of our neighbors are unhoused, sleeping outdoors, and just trying to survive. Where is the respect for their quality of life? Mayor Smiley turned his back on the working class, who are no longer the working class. They are the working-class poor. He vetoed the rent stabilization ordinance. He blocked an essential rent cap that would have kept families in their homes. He chose corporate landlords over human lives, and the result is thousands of families priced out of their own city, but we are still fighting to be anything but priced out of downtown. Anything but being reduced to sleeping on the pavement or some grassy area. Anything but being sent to jail because city sidewalks are off limits. Where do they go? Landlords are pricing people out of their homes,s and now our mayor and governor are trying to evict Rhode Islanders from public transit centers like the Kennedy Plaza Bus Hub because they don’t want wealthy corporations to see the crisis they created and neglected to solve.
“I want to add that it’s distasteful to build a multimillion-dollar home in Tiverton in the middle of a housing crisis, and while the city’s homeless are forced to sleep on concrete and grass, behind buildings. We are here to tell the governor and the mayor we won’t let you break our city.
“To sustain and improve does not mean to disrupt and remove. Displacement is not a solution. We are crying out, during this housing crisis, for our residents and neighbors. Kennedy Plaza is a historic public place built for the people of this city, with over 11,000 riders passing through it every single day, including me. It is our lifeline to the healthcare system.
“Because of my disability, I will never drive, and I rely heavily on RIPTA. I’m sure that many others share the same hardship. Fighting for mobility is fighting for our livelihood and our lives.
“Give us shelters, give us shade, stop the corporate real estate!
Aneiya Sangster, co-director of the Providence Student Union
“As a high school student, I stand here today representing countless young people who rely on bus transit every day. For us, the bus isn’t just a convenience; it’s how we get to school and our jobs, and how we connect with our community. Kennedy Plaza is the heart of our bus system, a hub that works for us for students and families in Providence. We can’t let state leaders dismantle something so essential because they’re listening to big real estate owners instead of us. They talk about progress, but moving our bus hub from Kennedy Plaza to some out-of-the-way spot by the train station isn’t progress. It’s a step backwards. It’s a waste of millions of dollars that could be used to improve our bus service rather than disrupt it.
“This isn’t about making transit better. It’s about pushing bus riders out of sight, all to appease the few wealthy property owners who don’t want to see us near their fancy buildings. We know what’s really going on, and we won’t stand for it. We need leaders who understand that good public transportation is about serving the people, not just developers. We need our voices heard because we are the ones who ride these buses. We demand that state leaders stop this misguided project, stop wasting our tax dollars, and instead invest in strengthening the bus system that already serves us so well. Support good bus transit for everyone, not just those with money.”
Barry Schiller
“When I was on the RIPTA Board in the 1990s, we planned Kennedy Plaza. Before that, the different bus routes ended at various spots all over downtown, and there wasn’t a convenient transfer between them. It never occurred to me that they would break up Kennedy Plaza. I wrote an article for the Providence Eye about this situation, and I like top 10 lists, so I have 10 reasons why it’s a bad idea to move the hub.
One: The train station park site they have in mind is obviously not as convenient.
Building over the train tracks is difficult because the tunnel limits what they can do and makes construction more expensive.
The streets around the station park are already congested and constricted, so it’s going to be difficult to get buses in and out.
Thirteen different bus lines already go to the train station. There’s no shortage of buses serving the trains. More than 300 people go to this train station every day.
Moving the hub to the station park will increase RIPTA’s operating costs. Think about the south side, west side, and east side bus lines that terminate at Kennedy Plaza. They’re going to have to go back and forth, on slow trips, to the station park. That’s going to increase the cost significantly.
There are the questions of equity that you’ve heard about. It’s the wealthy pushing out not only the poor people, but also people who ride the bus. All of them are climate champions for not driving their polluting and noisy vehicles all over downtown.
The high cost of actually building a new hub is ridiculous.
The contract that RIPTA signed with Next Wave. Randall is an expert at reading that contract. It puts taxpayers and RIPTA at risk because the contract is so unfavorable to both. We can’t afford that.
There was supposed to be public input into this move. We never got asked about the proposed station site, not once, and we never got asked if we want to stay in Kennedy Plaza. A few people were saying, “If you have to move, the train station might be something worth thinking about.” That’s the maximum support it ever got, but we were never asked whether we wanted to stay in Kennedy Plaza, and we were never asked about Station Park.
Kennedy Plaza has problems, but for far less money, we could fix it up and make it better, and that’s what we should do. Thank you for being here, and thanks to the Kennedy Plaza Resilience Coalition.
Randall Rose
“We know Kennedy Plaza needs improvement. It has been neglected for a long time, and sometimes flagrantly, because they want to make it look bad, so we will tolerate moving the buses out of Kennedy Plaza. But the only reason anyone is thinking of moving the buses out of Kennedy Plaza is that the real estate owners next to it don’t like having bus riders near their properties. They think bus riders are dirty. They think that having bus riders near their properties limits the rent they can charge. They want to raise their rent, so they want the State of Rhode Island and RIPTA to pay to move the hub out of Kennedy Plaza. They don’t even care where it goes, as long as it’s moved out of Kennedy Plaza. They’ve been proposing all sorts of locations, one crazier than the next, and they don’t care whether the move is good for the bus system or not.
“Unfortunately, decisions in Rhode Island about our bus system are being made by people who don’t care about buses. It’s people like us, speaking up, that can change this. There is plenty of money available to renovate Kennedy Plaza. The voters approved a bond 12 years ago for improvements to mass transit infrastructure facilities throughout the state - not just Kennedy Plaza, but almost all of that money has been targeted towards moving the buses out of Kendy Plaza, even though that’s going to make things worse.
“There has never been any serious evaluation showing that moving buses out of Kennedy Plaza would make the transit system better in any way. Nobody’s even tried to figure out whether that would make the bus system better. The governor and the Mayor of Providence say we’re going to do it even though there’s been no study showing that it is actually good for transit.
“The contractor wants to build a new hub at a huge public expense. They were supposed to consult with us. They were supposed to ask the public and bus riders about potential sites. They never asked anybody. They never had any public session about the site they’re now proposing next to the train station. They are not doing their job. They don’t care about what’s good for Rhode Island; they’re wasting taxpayer money. It would be much cheaper to renovate Kennedy Plaza and avoid wasting so much money on this. As Barry mentioned, building a new hub for the whole state where bus riders don’t want to go is super expensive.
“It’s going to cost $200 to $250 million - that’s what the contractor, Next Wave, wants the state to spend. I’m sure the money will be taken out of RIPTA’s budget. Even though RIPTA can’t afford it, it’s being made to bear the expense and financial risk of hundreds of millions of dollars to build a new bus hub, and RIPTA doesn’t have that kind of money. And the contract with Next Wave guarantees the company a profit margin. They can charge practically anything they want: no maximum price. There’s no limit to how much they charge, and they get an automatic 5% markup on top of it. And they’re the ones who are supposed to advise RIPTA on financing this project. There are no serious cost controls in this project. It’s likely to be even worse than rebuilding the Washington Bridge, even more expensive. Unfortunately, all this was designed by people who don’t care about public transit.
“But we, the people, are speaking up. As soon as people hear about what this project is like, they oppose it. Even though they’ve been trying to move the hub out of Kennedy Plaza for a dozen years, they’ve never made any progress because the people keep saying no.
“Some bus riders believe nobody listens to them, but we have always been able to stop any attempt to move the hub out of Kennedy Plaza. I appreciate everybody here. I appreciate everybody who’s been at our previous rallies.
“We are going to stop this project. Please talk to your elected officials and tell them why moving the bus hub is a bad idea, and support the bill Senator Bell sponsored. That bill would terminate this project, stop the waste of taxpayer money, and improve the bus system.”
Movbng the bus hub is reaslly stupid and only people who do not ride the bus want it. Listen to the riders. Why would you move the bus hub without the support of the riders? Cause the rich criminals want it done. Which is a very stupid reason to do anything.
Remember when the last time the bus station was moved? It was moved up by North Main Street close to Pawtucket. Don't hear much about that station unless going to NYC.