‘Lifeline’ of public transit faces deep cuts in R.I.

Associated Press

BRISTOL, R.I.

Nils Berg rides the No. 60 bus to work religiously. In summer, he takes it south from Bristol to Newport; in winter, he rides it north to Providence. Working in the state’s seasonal hospitality industry, the father of two often doesn’t get off work until midnight.

But under a plan by Rhode Island’s public transit agency to reduce service to help close a multimillion-dollar budget hole, his bus would no longer operate after 10 p.m., including on both weekend days, starting in September. Any change, he says, would be devastating — not just because he’d be left stranded, but because businesses could lose some of the late-night clientele they rely on.

“This is vital for a business owner,” Berg said at a recent public hearing in Bristol on the proposed cuts, before dashing off to catch the bus. “You cut out a bus schedule, and you are hurting businesses in Newport.”

The impact of the proposed service cuts by the Rhode Island Public Transit Authority — which would affect the vast majority of the state’s communities and 39 of its 54 fixed routes — is more than just an inconvenience. In a state with the third-highest unemployment in the nation — behind Nevada and California — the trims, along with any future ones, could hamstring an already struggling economy.

“Public transportation actually subsidizes most small businesses,” said Charles Odimgbe, RIPTA’s chief executive officer, who has called the proposed cuts “painful.”

“It is an economic catalyst for any community,” he said.

The American Public Transportation Association says a $1 billion investment in public transportation means 36,000 created or saved jobs, and that for every $1 invested in public transit, $4 is generated in returns. One typical measure of a state’s business friendliness is its transportation infrastructure.

Public transit also, of course, gets people to their jobs. According to APTA, nearly 60 percent of transit trips are to the workplace.