Rhode Island Public Transit Authority

RIPTA was created in 1964 by the Rhode Island General Assembly to supervise what had been a system of privately-run bus and trolley systems. RIPTA began operating buses on July 1, 1966, inheriting services provided previously by the United Transit Company. Ridership had decreased in Rhode Island after the construction of the Interstate Highway System. Although it has never returned to 1940s levels, ridership has increased slightly over the years as services have been expanded and improved upon.[4]

RIPTA operates services in several categories. All services are operated from two garages: in Providence at 265 Melrose Street and Middletown at 350 Coddington Highway.

Fixed route

An R-Line bus in downtown Providence

Most of RIPTA's fixed-route bus lines are centered on three major hubs in the cities of Providence at Kennedy Plaza, Pawtucket at the Pawtucket Transit Center, and Newport at the Gateway Center. Two routes run between Providence and Newport and four routes between Providence and Pawtucket. Three routes run between Providence and Warwick Mall, where they connect with a Coventry-Warwick Mall route and a Warwick crosstown route. A single circulator route is operated in Woonsocket, where service was expanded in 2011 to allow residents, many of whom do not own cars, to reach shopping areas outside town.[5]

In November 2019, RIPTA received $8 million in federal funding to add additional hubs at the Community College of Rhode Island in Warwick and the University of Rhode Island in Kingston.[6]

Demand response/Flex service

#0651 works the 211 Flex Service on the URI campus.

RIde #0141 in downtown Providence.

In addition to fixed-route services, RIPTA also provides Flex Service service, primarily settled around less-populated areas in the state. It serves the communities of Bristol, Burrillville, Coventry, Kingston (including the University of Rhode Island), Middletown, Narragansett, Newport, North Smithfield, Portsmouth, South Kingstown, Tiverton, West Warwick, Westerly, and Woonsocket.

These are the current RIPTA fares:[7]

Not included here are cutaway vans normally used on Flex service and RIde paratransit and demand response services. The entire fleet complies with the ADA. Except for buses 1001–1010 (trolley replicas), all buses feature bike racks. All buses are 102 inches (2.6 m) wide.

The Rhode Island Public Transit Authority (RIPTA) operates a number of bus routes in Rhode Island. Most are local bus routes based out of Providence; a number of local routes are also based from Newport, Pawtucket, or Woonsocket. The agency operates six express routes to park and ride lots around the state, and one local rapid bus route. The only Rhode Island towns not served by a RIPTA bus route are Foster, Little Compton, Charlestown and New Shoreham.[15] Some rural towns, such as Glocester, Burrillville, Scituate, Richmond, West Greenwich and Tiverton, are only serviced by a single or limited-use line.[15] While two routes run through Jamestown, neither operates on Sundays.[15] The 1 Eddy/Hope/Benefit and 35 Rumford lines were the first two RIPTA routes with stops outside of Rhode Island's borders, as both routes end in a northern terminus at the South Attleboro MBTA station in Massachusetts.[16] RIPTA was required to seek federal permission before the extending the routes across state lines to South Attleboro in 2013.[16] Soon, the 32 and 34 were extended over the Massachusetts border to Seekonk Square. In August 2019, RIPTA added a third line running to Massachusetts, the 24x, an express line which includes stops in Fall River and Somerset that connect to Southeastern Regional Transit Authority lines.[17][18]

All routes serve at least one transit center or transfer point. Providence-based routes operate from Kennedy Plaza, Pawtucket-based routes operate or serve the Pawtucket Transit Center, Newport-based routes from Newport's Gateway Center, Woonsocket-based routes from Woonsocket Depot Square, Warwick based routes from CCRI's Warwick Campus, and local South County routes from URI's Kingston Campus. Some Providence routes continue through Kennedy Plaza to Providence Train Station or Hospital District as part of the Downtown Transit Connector.

An R-Line bus at Providence Station

A bus at Kennedy Plaza on the #51 route

A bus at Kennedy Plaza on the #54 route

A tourist trolley at Gateway Center on the #67 route

A tourist trolley at Kennedy Plaza on the #92 route

Project Weber/RENEW focuses much of its harm reduction outreach on the RIPTA bus terminal, Kennedy Plaza. Kennedy Plaza has one of the highest rates of overdoses in Providence. In 2022, RIPTA and Providence Police were criticized by The Providence Journal for not carrying Narcan in Kennedy Plaza although The Providence Police Department has been trained and equipped to use Narcan since 2014. Dennis Bailer, yjr overdose prevention program director at Project Weber/RENEW, has attempted to work with RIPTA to train and assist them to respond to overdoses that had led to little response from RIPTA.[19][20]

In 2021, Project Weber/RENEW successfully pushed RIPTA to reopen its Kennedy Plaza bathrooms so that travelers could access basic sanitation in the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.[21]

a.^ 1335 has been retired because of a bus fire.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Rhode Island Public Transit Authority.

• RIPTA home page
• RIPTA Riders Advocacy Group