PROVIDENCE — The Rhode Island Public Transit Authority’s board of directors voted to approve extensive cuts to the agency’s service starting this fall.

At a Thursday meeting, the directors – with the exception of member Norman Benoit – voted in favor of the cost-saving measures, which will impact 46 routes, decreasing frequency, removing spans, or taking away weekend service.

Reducing service saves the agency about $5 million. Along with a $3 million federal funding infusion (which RIPTA will have to pay back from its capital budget), administrative cuts, and other savings, RIPTA no longer faces a $10 million budget deficit for the coming fiscal year.

“Net, the cuts don’t save that much,” Benoit said after the vote. “We’re so close to closing it.”

Benoit said he is still hoping that Gov. Dan McKee will announce additional supplemental funding, so that the agency can rescind the cuts.

He had made a motion (that was not seconded) to approve the cuts but with the caveat that if more funding came through in the next two weeks, the board would undo them.

With a $14 billion state budget, choosing to cut service to bridge a $5 million deficit “makes absolutely no sense to me,” he said.

McKee and RIPTA CEO Chris Durand announced the final version of the service cut proposal on Monday in a joint letter that also explained the temporary allocation of federal funding to the agency.

The previous version of the service cuts impacted 58 of the 67 lines RIPTA operates, including eliminating 14 routes altogether.

But riders, advocates, and elected officials, 27 of whom spoke at the Thursday board meeting, said that the new, approved plan still leaves those who take the bus — and the entire state — in a precarious situation.

“I’m kind of angry that I have to be here to help avoid the downward spiral,” said Barry Schiller, a longtime advocate and former RIPTA board member.

Schiller said that the combination of reducing services and increasing fares (which McKee and Durand’s letter suggest is coming), will further reduce ridership and revenue for the agency.

John Flaherty, speaking on behalf of Grow Smart RI, explained how previous major service cuts and fare increases had brought ridership down from about 21 million in 2008 to about 12 million now.

Flaherty also noted that the cuts were still among the largest in the agency’s history.

Jeanelle Wheeler, a Rhode Islander who does not own a car, said that her life will become significantly more difficult when the cuts are implemented and they may prevent her from getting to work.

“Wounding RIPTA wounds all of Rhode Island,” Wheeler said.

After listening to “piles of stories” from other riders who would be also impacted during a series of public hearings about the cuts, she wondered out loud if state leaders had also been listening: “Were those hearings really heard?”

State Rep. Teresa Tanzi, who represents South Kingstown and Narragansett, told ecoRI News that she’d been “falsely optimistic” after the letter came out Monday offering RIPTA funding, but quickly realized that segments of routes in her district would still be cut.

She said that during the meeting she was texting House Speaker Joseph Shekarchi, asking him to commit to filling in the remaining gap, calling it a “drop in the bucket.”

At the end of the meeting, after the service cuts vote, people in the audience started booing and shouting, “Shame,” at the board members.