Bus service to Newport slated to be cut

10/10/08 - Due to a deficit of more than $10 million, the Rhode Island Public Transit Authority has considered eliminating bus routes throughout the state, including route 64 that provides service between the University of Rhode Island and Newport, R.I.RIPTA officials said an estimated 20 percent decrease in spending is necessary for RIPTA to get back on its feet and out of the red.

According to Planning Department Manager Tim McCormick, gas prices are a large part of the problem. The state tax on gasoline is fixed per gallon instead of a percentage like sales tax. When the price of gasoline or diesel fuel goes up, revenue generated from these taxes either remains the same, or, as in this case, decreases.

"We are funded by gas tax revenue," he said. "[RIPTA's] gas tax revenue has been declining as the price of gas has gone up as Rhode Islanders buy less and less gasoline."

The other side of the problem, McCormick said, is the fact that most of RIPTA's revenue is spent on gasoline, and they need about 10,000 gallons a week.

"Although we don't pay taxes, our costs [are] going up as we are paying for more and more [gas]."

McCormick said there is a system called Fairbox Recovery that collects data in four categories: passengers per hour, per trip, per mile and how much bus fare is collected from each passenger.

"The 64 Newport-URI rates is one of the lowest in the system when you take those four measures together," McCormick said. "We don't want to cancel any of the services, but the service with lowest performance is the service scheduled to be canceled."

Being canceled and being on the schedule to be canceled are two very different things. Recently, RIPTA held public hearings to get feedback from riders. The last hearing was held Wed night, and the board is now making final decisions. The amount of RIPTA riders who attended and discussed their views on whether the route should be cut are factored into the decision.

"With this [public hearing process] we've had between 75 to 100 people at most of the 14 hearings," McCormick said. "That's a lot of people to express their displeasure."

One of those people, URI student Alex Casey, said eliminating service would be ridiculous.

"It would be cutting a very important line that I personally see used a lot," he said. "There's always people on it, I've been on there alone twice in the past three and a half years."

Newport resident Erin Kennedy agreed.

"No, they can't get rid of that route," she said. "[What about the] people who use the park'n'ride to go to work? I just got off a bus that had more than 50 people."

Another URI route that might see change is route 210, which provides "flex", or reservation-based, service from the Bonnet Shores area.

"Nothing has been decided, but the Bonnet service has not been producing a lot of ridership," he said. "We put in three trips a day...and all last spring we did not even average one person per trip."

Also an issue of concern is the RIde service routes for disabled persons. RIde routes run parallel to the normal bus schedules, providing a van that will pick up any disabled person within a three-quarter mile radius of a bus stop, and drive them to their destination bus stop. Any RIPTA cuts would simultaneously eliminate RIde service.

McCormick said there are no changes expected for the 211 route that provides shuttle service around campus.

McCormick said cuts and service reductions are not the only methods the authority is utilizing to help lessen the deficit. Biodiesel fuels are being researched to help lower fuel costs, scheduling and overtime hours are getting strict oversight and he claimed RIPTA is now focusing on fuel efficiency over reliability and maintenance costs when buying new vehicles.

He said RIPTA currently has groups of people working out biodiesel alternatives, but the expenses in a full-scale conversion of the 300 vehicle fleet would take more money and time than is currently available.

"When you change technologies as an individual, you just go to a repair facility that is equipped to handle that technology," McCormick said. "When we change technologies, we have our own internal repair facility that has to be adapted."

He added unless a full-scale refit process could be implemented to the fleet simultaneously, parallel technologies, like compressed natural gas or biodiesel, would have to be used to gradually upgrade the vehicles.