Now that Scott Avedisian has resigned, the RIPTA board should select a nationally respected transit professional as RIPTA’s next CEO — someone who is able to put good transit principles first while practicing open communications with riders and the public.  The next CEO needs to maintain service and continue to make progress on the initiatives to improve and expand operations that are currently underway.   RIPTA has suffered from political interference.  The next CEO should free from political interference and allowed the independence to work effectively.

We ask the board to include a transit advocate as a public member on the CEO search committee.  While the search for a new CEO is in progress, one good possibility as an interim leader is RIPTA’s capable Chief Financial Officer Chris Durand.

One of the best steps the governor and legislators can take to attract and retain a skilled leader for RIPTA is to make sure adequate funding is in place. We urge elected officials to support the legislation now under consideration that would substantially increase the agency’s funding so that the new administrator can begin to take the agency forward from Day 1, following the guidelines laid out in the state-approved Transit Master Plan.

Amy Glidden and Patricia Raub, Co-Chairs, RI Transit Riders