RI Transit Riders strongly opposes the proposed contract on the RIPTA Board’s January 30 agenda to spend $16.9 million on initial design for a project built around a completely unnecessary new bus hub.  When RIPTA is facing imminent service cuts, unable to pay enough to attract bus drivers, and expecting an even worse fiscal cliff in the next two years, it is financially irresponsible to undertake an expensive move to a new bus hub in a clearly worse location than the current one.

The proposed Preliminary Services Agreement, at $16.9 million, will use almost all the remaining bond money that was approved in 2014 by voters, who had been told it would be used to fund “enhancements and renovations to mass transit hub infrastructure throughout the state…”  We don’t believe this project meets those standards as promised to voters.  The proposal doesn’t enhance RIPTA’s infrastructure any more than it renovates Kennedy Plaza.  These funds could instead be used as promised to improve mass transit; we can’t afford to squander the money.

Although Kennedy Plaza has problems, they could be solved for far less cost than building a new hub.  Providing enhanced security, better lighting, landscaping, traffic signalization and signage, and revitalizing the terminal building would be a relatively cheap improvement, much better than the current hub-relocation proposal.

In 2017 the City of Providence had a robust public process that resulted in a broad consensus on how to reduce the footprint of the bus hub while keeping it in Kennedy Plaza, making the Plaza a better public space.  That plan was derailed by adjacent real estate owners who saw the state’s central bus hub, with its riders who are often low-income or people of color, as a detriment to their property values.  They wanted to have the hub moved away somewhere at public expense, showing no concern for what the bus system needs.  Since then, we have seen various badly-thought-out plans for relocating the hub which never take riders’ needs seriously.  And this contract is designed so that the optimum Kennedy Plaza location would not even be considered.  It’s no way to spend public money, and it seems to violate civil rights.

The proposed Agreement does not name a site for the hub, but state leaders have been pointing to a remote location on I-195 land near Clifford St.  Almost no bus riders have their destinations near that site, and it’s bad for bus routing too.  No key routes, such as the Downtown Transit Corridor and R-Line, go by this site.  Rerouting them will significantly slow trips and increase RIPTA’s costs. 

When Gov. McKee recently mentioned how bad it would be to put the hub out “in Siberia”, he was, in a way, voicing what is wrong with the I-195 site he’s supported.

The damage to taxpayers goes even further: this costly $16.9 million design contract covers only a small fraction of what relocating the hub would actually cost overall, as has long been acknowledged.  Should we spend more and more just to create an unwanted “Siberian” hub?

It should be an unacceptable procedure to make such a major decision as moving the Kennedy Plaza hub, which has huge financial and operational implications, without consulting the public and those who actually use the bus.

A good transit system not only enables people to travel but also helps address pollution, congestion, climate emissions, road safety, and housing needs, as well as keeping more of our energy dollars within the state’s economy.  A safe, well-sited central bus hub, which Kennedy Plaza is, can help RIPTA live up to its potential to do all that.  Surely we should not spend a lot of money to move the hub to an inconvenient location that could cripple an already struggling system for the foreseeable future.