R.I.P. TA: Advocates hold a "Transit Vigil" to mourn RIPTA in advance of devastating service cuts

"We are in this position because Governor McKee has decided that the over 35,000 people who ride RIPTA every day, people like you and me, are expendable," said Christopher Bove.

Advocates, labor leaders, and community organizers gathered in Kennedy Plaza for a vigil, modeled on a funeral, to hold space for riders whose lives will be harmed, and mourn the Rhode Island Public Transit Authority (RIPTA)’s current service as it heads into an uncertain and scaled-back future. Governor Daniel McKee’s sweeping service cuts go into effect Saturday, September 27, with slashed frequencies, weekend eliminations, and truncated routes.

Here’s the video:

“Dearly beloved transit riders, friends, we’re gathered here to say R.I.P. to RIPTA as we know it,” said Liza Burkin, President of the Providence Streets Coalition and the Save RIPTA campaign. “This is a very solemn occasion, about four days before the start of historic, sweeping cuts across the entire state, that will make buses come later, our wait times longer, and lose weekend access almost entirely. Make no mistake: Governor Dan McKee is the one who brought us here, and he has to own this situation.”

There were chants of “Shame!” from the around 100 people in attendance.

“This is historic,” continued Burkin. “RIPTA has not seen cuts like this in its history. Narragansett is losing all its buses on weekends, and the #69 will only come every 90 minutes on weekdays. The #34 bus stop in East Providence is going from every 60 minutes to every 80 minutes. 80-minute headways in the middle of a city of a capital region? The #75 bus to the Lincoln Mall is going away entirely on weekends. How are people supposed to do their shopping? The #68 bus to Easton’s Beach also goes away on weekends. This is the Ocean State, and we’re cutting off access to the ocean for our working class. On their days off, students will be late to school. The lack of Sunday access means that people cannot get to church.

“But together, we can reverse this. All hope is not lost. We are here tonight to hold space for the riders whose lives will be harmed. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem like there’s anything we can really do about this until January. Last year, so many of you fought alongside us at the State House. You were there late nights, and guess what? We’re going to do it again. We thank the members of the General Assembly who got us an additional $15 million annually for RIPTA. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough, and the governor was unwilling to make up the gap even as that gap shrank and shrank, from $15 million to $10 million, then down to $4 million, and still nothing from Governor Dan McKee to prevent what is about to happen to communities across our state, so that we say shame.

“The point of this vigil is to hold space and be with each other because we know that folks will be stranded on the side of a road, trapped in their homes in the coming winter cold, and having to pay more of their hard-earned paychecks on Uber and Lyft. We hate that so much. We should not have to outsource our transportation to giant Silicon Valley tech companies. We should spend that money on good-paying union jobs here in Rhode Island.”

“During hard times, we figure out who our friends are,” said Valerie Reishuk, a car-free resident of Providence’s Fox Point neighborhood. “Our friends are the stakeholders with the same skin in the game. When these cuts happen on Saturday, the people with skin in the game are riders like us who take the bus every day and need the bus to get to our jobs, school, doctor appointments, etc. We also have allies, and they show up during the legislative session. They listen to their constituents to help us raise this issue, but they are not the same as a stakeholder. A stakeholder is a parent of a Providence Public Schools high school student who must ensure the student gets to school safely. A stakeholder is somebody from a Health Equity Zone who realizes that Providence is ninth in the nation for school-age asthma and realizes that we could be reducing emissions, right now, by having greater ridership on RIPTA and fewer cars on the highway.

“I’m asking you to get on the bus, look to your left and right, and ask yourself, ‘Do I see a stakeholder today? Do I see somebody else with skin in the game? Maybe I see an ally. Can I raise them to a stakeholder in this dire situation where we find ourselves?” It has been mentioned that House Finance Chair Marvin Abney and Speaker Joseph Shekarchi helped us find additional funding. Speaker Shekarchi has mentioned that affordable housing and frequent and reliable transit are inextricably linked. People who recognize this have skin in the game.

“Beware of the people among us who pretend to be stakeholders, but are not. Two people on the RIPTA Board voted against these cuts, and the rest of that board voted for the cuts. When people have skin in the game, they ride the bus with you. Your RIPTA Board is not riding the bus with you. Look out to see who is on the bus with you because they need skin in this game. Look around. Recognize your allies. Recognize your fellow riders, your stakeholders. Greet them on your bus tomorrow. Treat them kindly and remember: We have skin in this game.”

“I grew up using RIPTA daily,” said Andrea Gonzales from Young Voices Rhode Island. “From taking it to school, going to my job, and getting access to the needed resources - food, clothing, appointments, and more. Now that I am an adult who works serving young people at Young Voices, I see now, more than ever, how RIPTA was not just life-changing for me, but for thousands of other students. This last summer alone, Young Voices provided over 1500 bus passes for our youth. Without the bus, hundreds, if not thousands, of students would lose access to their schooling, after-school programs, appointments, and the much-needed social interaction they desperately lack. Without the bus, youth are stuck in their homes. They’re not going to experience the beauty of Rhode Island, the opportunities that our state holds, or the friendships that are just a 30-minute bus ride away.

“Today, we don’t mourn just the buses; we mourn all the people who will lose their jobs, education, third spaces, independence, and friends. It doesn’t have to be this way. Today, we can see the changes needed to ensure we wouldn’t be mourning, but celebrating. Please continue to fight. Continue to show up, because the people and the youth in our state don’t just need it, they deserve it. Join us in fighting to save our one and only Uncle RIPTA.”

“I’m here today, like you, to mourn. I am mourning choices,” said Weayonnoh Nelson-Davies, executive director of the Economic Progress Institute (EPI). “Why choices? Because state leaders are making a conscious choice not to fund RIPTA. I mourn when we make wrong and inequitable choices. I mourn that we have decided, as a state, to lose $239 million a year to make local governments whole with the car tax phase-out, yet we can’t find $4 million to invest in you. I mourn the wrong choices tonight. I mourn the choice to let 40,000 riders a day - our students, our workers, our seniors, and people with disabilities - we have made a conscious choice, as a state, to not invest in people of Rhode Island.

“And even though we mourn, we are also here to demand - because our voices are not silent in this moment.

“As state leaders make the wrong choices, it is our responsibility and our right to demand that they make the right choices by investing in a public transit system that is important for our economy. It’s important that people get to work and where they need to go every day.

“I have a demand for our state leaders, those who said we have no money for RIPTA. I have already told you that we chose to lose $239 million. I demand that we raise some revenue to invest in RIPTA. I demand that our state leaders send the message that we are not like Washington right now and choose to disinvest in healthcare, SNAP, and public transportation. That we will make the right choice, invest in our communities, and not only protect the income of the wealthiest among us. We demand that they get the money to invest.

“I also have another demand. Sometimes it feels like things are not urgent to those who don’t have skin in the game. We are heading into a crisis, Rhode Island. Washington is sending a crisis our way. RIPTA is facing a crisis in two days. We need state leaders to come back to work in the fall and find money to fund RIPTA and fund those who have been losing healthcare. We demand that our General Assembly and governor get back to work this fall by calling a fall session to find the money we need to save RIPTA. I ask you to join me in that demand. Tell them, “I demand you get back to work, raise revenue, and save RIPTA.” Thank you for being here tonight. The fight is not over.”

“Growing up on Aquidneck Island, I remember how freeing it felt to be able to take the bus with my friends, whether it was to go to the movies, the Providence Place Mall, or even out to a restaurant and not having to worry about when I had to leave because the Route 60 Bus ran every hour, as late as one or two in the morning,” said Christopher Bove, a member of the independent Accessible Transportation Advisory Committee for RIPTA. “It absolutely breaks my heart that blind and otherwise disabled teenagers going forward will not share that experience with me. We are here today to mourn not just the loss of our beloved transit agency, RIPTA, but the loss of the choices and independence that so many of us have come to rely on and cherish over the years.

“What is perhaps the most tragic aspect of RIPTA’s killing is that, like so many other travesties to befall our state, it could have been prevented. Governor McKee wants you to believe this is not the case and that these cuts were unavoidable. He wants you to believe that RIPTA has been sucking the state dry, and we simply can no longer afford these critical public transit services. That is not true. It has never been true, and it never will be true.

“When Governor McKee sent his annual budget proposal to the General Assembly this past January, he chose to leave RIPTA with a $32.6 million budget deficit, demonstrating his callous and cruel willingness to send RIPTA over a fiscal cliff that would’ve led to the decimation of service and created a bare bones transit network that would be unrecognizable today. Luckily, under the leadership of Speaker Joseph Shekarchi and Senate President Valerie Lawson, our elected representatives and senators in the General Assembly voted to provide RIPTA with an additional $15 million to alleviate some of the worst possible outcomes from the governor’s disastrous budget proposal.

“How did the governor respond to that, you might ask? By throwing a temper tantrum and refusing to sign the budget like a middle schooler not getting their way on the student council.

“Now, with RIPTA set to implement service reductions to 45 out of 60 bus routes, Governor McKee wants us to be grateful for the short-term and insufficient funding Band-Aids given to RIPTA because it could have been worse in his original proposal, as though he is not the person responsible for putting us in this position in the first place.

“Unfortunately for him, we are too smart to fall for that. This year, our state is set to spend over $14 billion across all its offices and agencies, with RIPTA’s $32.6 million shortfall representing just 0.2% of state funding.

“In what world is that outside our means?

“On Saturday, tens of thousands of Rhode Islanders will wake up with fewer transit options than before. And while I am grateful to the General Assembly for preserving the RIde Anywhere program, which has become a lifeline for people with disabilities living outside the urban core, I am extremely concerned about how these massive reductions to the fixed route service will strain the paratransit system. As more and more people turn to the paratransit program out of desperation, we should not need to beg our government to help us get to work, school, doctor’s appointments, or any of the other important places in our lives.

“As Rhode Islanders, we deserve the right to live independently, and that includes being able to get around our communities. While I am devastated at this loss, I am comforted by the knowledge that it does not need to be forever. We are in this position because Governor McKee has decided that the over 35,000 people who ride RIPTA every day, people like you and me, are expendable and that we deserve less access to our state than those who possess the means, ability, or desire to operate a personal vehicle. I sincerely hope you’ll join me in the 2026 legislative session to fight for the RIPTA we deserve and not only reverse these cuts, but make meaningful improvements to put RIPTA on the path to being the transit agency we all know it can and should be together. Let’s remind Governor McKee that a state’s people are not expendable or replaceable, but its politicians are.”

“The Rhode Island Black and Latino Caucus made saving RIPTA one of its highest priorities,” said State Senator Tiara Mack. “Not because this is an issue about race, but an issue about equality. In my district, wealthy people have decided to go car-free because of the impact it has on the environment. Everyone from young school children to the elderly who want to ensure they have a mode of transit as they downsize their lives and navigate their communities has used and relied on RIPTA. These devastating cuts impact every Rhode Islander. It would be a mistake to consider this a class issue. No one in the 21st century should struggle to get from corner to corner in our country’s smallest, most densely populated state.

“While we didn’t have the means or the will to save RIPTA this year, there are champions at the State House who hear your calls, who know that during the COVID crisis, we saw a world where the R-line was free, and we increased ridership. We know that in the 21st century, more and more people are going car-free, relying on bikes, and using mixed modes of transportation. This is the world we all want, and this is the world we should demand.”

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“We need to respect the time of all Rhode Islanders, and it is shameful that if you take RIPTA, it’s as if your time doesn’t matter and you can wait half an hour at best or an hour and a half to get where you need to go,” said Representative Jennifer Stewart. “That is not right. I look forward to pushing this issue and getting RIPTA on a sound financial footing in the next session. And in addition to everything you’ve heard tonight, we have to change board leadership at RIPTA because, as a co-sponsor of legislation that would’ve gone a long way to put RIPTA on a solid financial footing moving forward, there are members of the board - and the head of that board - who opposed those bills, and that is not right.”

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Attending the vigil, but not a speaker, was gubernatorial candidate Helena Foulkes, who has announced her intention to challenge Governor McKee in next year’s Democratic Primary. Foulkes arrived in Kennedy Plaza riding her bicycle.

“I’m passionate about this issue because we must support the current riders,” said Foulkes. “But this is the future of transportation, I believe, in the state and our country. I believe that budgets are a representation of values. When I look at a $14 billion budget and see a $10 million shortfall that affects people, it honestly breaks my heart. One comparison point is that the governor and the legislature have chosen to keep funding two permanent tow trucks on the Washington Bridge at four and a half million dollars every year. They sit there 24/7, instead of [funding RIPTA]. For the last year, I have been attending RIPTA listening sessions all over the state, watching people speak about how these cuts affect them. I know Rhode Islanders do not want this. This is not the best that we can do. We need to speak on the riders’ behalf and ensure they’re supported.

“40,000 people are affected by this cut. What we’re doing is cutting our way down to make sure we serve the fewest possible people. Instead of saying, “How do we get more people on buses and off the road?” It’s better for the climate to invest in this.

“This is what cities and states of the future are doing. We need a vision that says, ‘Where do we want transportation to be in the next 10 or 20 years?’ Multimodal transit is the way of the future, and Rhode Island should be able to lead because we are the most densely populated state in the country.

“This cut is four days away. Let’s get the legislature back. Let’s fix it. They can find the money. If not, they’ll wait until January, but I hope that doesn’t happen. What I’m hearing is the money’s there. It’s just that they’re making choices, right? This is a group of people who desperately need it. We’ve got to find a way to get this small amount of money, on a $14 billion budget, and support the riders in the system.”

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The fight is not over. Advocates and riders promise to continue pushing for legislation that restores and expands funding for RIPTA and organizing behind candidates who prioritize the lives and livelihoods of transit riders.