Transportation

With I-195 Parcel Out, RIPTA Plans to Announce New Possible Hub Location

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The Kennedy Plaza bus hub in Providence. (Joanna Detz/ecoRI News)

PROVIDENCE — The Rhode Island Transit Authority plans to present its board of directors with a possible location, or locations, for a new bus hub within four to six weeks.

“We’re going to put forward the viable options,” interim CEO Chris Durand told ecoRI News, considering factors like cost expectations and project feasibility.

“We sit on a lot of parameters for what we want out of this transit center,” he added, “so it’s really on Next Wave to come up with something that checks those boxes.”

Next Wave Rhode Island Partners Group — which consists of several companies, including Gilbane, Marsella Development, CUBE 3, Jacobs, and Plenary America — has been hired to handle initial work on the project. According to Durand, Next Wave has received $4 million to research several properties proposed for a new facility.

When asked how many options might be on the table in the coming weeks, Durand responded, “If there’s only one [feasible option], there’s only one.”

Durand recently issued a statement saying that a parcel off I-195 would no longer be considered for the project, citing rider concerns about its location.

Durand said he favors building a new hub near the Providence Train Station. (Previously, the train station was located across from Kennedy Plaza in the building that currently hosts the Rhode Island Foundation.)

“It makes a lot of sense for a lot of reasons,” Durand said. With RIPTA’s desire to boost ridership, the agency is asking questions like, “How do we make the system easier to use?” Durand said he believes that connecting bus and train could do that.

“I’m hopeful that something materializes there,” he said.

During an Oct. 24 board meeting, former state senator and RIPTA board member Robert Kells expressed frustration that there haven’t been concrete options for hub locations presented to the board.

“We should have this figured out by now,” Kells said.

RIPTA staff had said they would likely have a recommendation by the end of October, but Durand said they aren’t quite ready yet.

“We’re at a place where we know the train station is the most advantageous location for us, but we don’t have the details ironed out,” Durand said during the meeting.

He said there was more analysis and community feedback that needed to be evaluated.

Department of Transportation director and RIPTA board chair Peter Alviti defended the process, saying that each location under consideration is being analyzed.

Many advocates, including members of Rhode Island Transit Riders and the Kennedy Plaza Resiliency Coalition, have opposed moving the bus hub at all, calling for improvements to the current facilities instead.

But earlier this week, RI Transit Riders said it would be open to a move to the train station, under certain conditions.

“RI Transit Riders is open to the possibility of a hub located near the train station provided we can be assured that the state will simultaneously commit to full operational funding for RIPTA, including money to not only address the fiscal cliff, but also to implement the Transit Master Plan,” the organization said in a statement.

Like agencies around the country, RIPTA faced a deficit earlier this year, after federal COVID funding ran dry. A funding allocation filled the deficit for this year’s budget, saving the agency from the cliff temporarily.

The Save RIPTA campaign, which RI Transit Riders is a part of, calls for fully funding the agency so that it can avoid a cliff and fulfill the General Assembly-approved Transit Master Plan.

“There is no point in building a new facility if RIPTA service is allowed to deteriorate,” the RI Transit Riders statement added.

The next RIPTA board meeting is scheduled for Nov. 21.

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  1. Good news that the remote “Siberia” Parcel 35 location is dropped. I suspect that the interim CEO Chris Durand, being a true transit professional, made it clear the location could not work for transit.
    The train station idea sounds plausible, but one way to do it, an underground bunker under the State House lawn sounds very expensive. I’m glad the decision is put off until after the election. If Republicans win, we can expect special Federal help to dry up, indeed there might not be many trains – last time Trump called for abolishing Amtrak and this time he will have anti-transit zealot Musk on his team.
    With RI reportedly facing a deficit of $398 million in the upcoming FY, and worse afterwards, I just don’t see how such a move can be financed in a way that doesn’t jeopardize future operations or put taxpayers at risk.
    Alviti is right to want to see a route and traffic analysis before moving ahead. Think about the congested streets in the area constricted by the tracks, the river, the State House lawn. What does a move to a rr hub mean for east-west lines like #92 RIC to East Side – do they take a slow detour back and forth to a rr hub or skip it? Same for #1 Hope-Eddy. Do north side routes such as #50 Douglas #57 Smith terminate at a rr hub leaving passengers to walk to the city center or transfer to another bus? And those that would still transfer at KP, will they have any amenities there such as info, bathrooms, indoor waiting? If so, RIPTA will have to support two transit stations.
    By the way, some south side lines such as #3, #66 already terminate at the rr station.

  2. We are lucky to have Barry watching these issues. When we take the train we like to take the #3 or #4 from Cranston to connect. It will be interesting to see how the proposal fits a lot of busses around the train station.

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