The Rhode Island Public Transportation Authority approved a fare increase at its Jan. 31 board meeting in an attempt to avoid service cuts while addressing a growing budget deficit. The new rates went into effect Monday.
Base fares rose from $1.25 to $1.50, while tickets for the Providence LINK trolley increased from $1.00 to $1.50. A set of 10 RIPTIKS now costs $13.50, up from its previous price of $11.25, while the cost of 10 student tokens rose from $10.60 to $12.75.
The increase did not affect the cost of a monthly bus pass, which remains at $45. The 10-cent transfer charge also went unchanged.
RIPTA officials estimate the rate increase will bring in an additional $183,500 in revenue for Fiscal Year 2005, which ends Jun. 30. For the following year, RIPTA expects to receive an extra $500,000 to $550,000, according to Karen Mensel GS '92, the authority's director of marketing and communications. These funds will fall significantly short of balancing RIPTA's budget, which is expected to produce a $1.9 million deficit this fiscal year.
Several factors have contributed to RIPTA's financial crisis, including a rise in expenses as well as budget restrictions imposed by Governor Donald Carcieri '65.
In his most recent budget proposal, Carcieri proposed to "level-fund" the authority, meaning it will receive the same amount of state assistance in the upcoming fiscal year as it did this past year, Mensel said.
Meanwhile, RIPTA faces cost increases that are "outside of our control," including rising fuel prices and nearly $500,000 in payments to ensure services comply with regulations set by the Americans for Disabilities Act, Mensel said.
"And there's a rising demand for service," she said. The overall budget deficit signifies "a gap between resources and need."
RIIPTA has already approved several internal cost-cutting measures to reduce the deficit, including deferring several technological improvements to RIPTA services as well as imposing a hiring freeze for eight vacant jobs - positions Mensel said "need to be filled."
The suggestion to raise fares came "from the state house level," Mensel said.
Mensel expressed skepticism that increased revenue will significantly improve RIPTA's financial condition, adding that she hopes policymakers can think of other ways for the authority to survive within its current budgetary constraints.
"We've cut everything back as much as we can," she said. "I think we're very willing to look at any possible ways to economize further. Maybe someone else will see something that we don't see."
But Robert Batting, Carcieri's appointee to RIPTA's board of directors, said he believes the authority can take further steps to economize. Batting said he believes efforts to reduce expenses have been insufficient, citing a raise in annual total expenditures from $59.9 to $84.4 million in the past four years, as well as the hiring of nearly 200 additional RIPTA employees during that time.
"The state is not awash in money," Batting said. "So when people start talking about making some choices ... they're going to really have to sit back and fine tune how they manage limited resources. There are obviously no cuts there, are there?"
Some environmental activists have questioned the logic behind the rate increase, saying the hike will reduce the use of public transportation while potentially resulting in revenue losses.
Professor of Physics John Bradley Marston, who has served as chair of the Sierra Club's Rhode Island chapter, said the rate increase might make Providence less pedestrian-friendly. A high number of residents may opt to drive their own cars, thereby increasing traffic congestion and the city's consumption of fossil fuels, he said.
"The last time they raised their rates, ridership went down such that the total revenue actually decreased," Marston said, referring to an increase he said occurred a couple of years ago.
Emily McAteer '07, a leader for the Brown Environmental Action Network who has also worked with the Sierra Club, said she believes the rate increase will weaken the city's public transportation system while encouraging the use of individual automobiles.
"People might not think that 25 cents is a big deal," she said. "But for people that ride it every single day, it comes out to be a lot."
McAteer also expressed frustration that the increase eliminates RIPTA's "short zone" fare, which charged only 50 cents for bus rides within Providence. With the increase, riders will need to pay the $1.50 base fare for these "short zone" rides.
Kurt Teichert, who serves on the University's ad-hoc transportation committee and works as resource efficiency manager for Facilities Management, said he believes the rate increase may be necessary to ensure certain services are not eliminated.
"If this is what it takes to keep routes running ... that's probably going to help keep the environmental impacts of driving down," he said.
The hike in fares comes on the heels of the Brown Transportation Office's decision to extend a trial RIPTA subsidy through second semester. The subsidy was originally scheduled to end in December. Under the subsidy, Brown finances half the cost of either a monthly pass or two RIPTIK booklets of ten passes each for students, faculty and staff.
The subsidy is one of several measures recommended by the University's ad-hoc transportation committee, which formed about a year ago to address College Hill's parking shortage and traffic congestion, according to Abigail Rider, director of real estate and administrative services.
"The ability of the University to grow is contingent upon having suitable parking," Rider said. The subsidy is one of the committee's "demand management" measures that encourage Brown students and faculty to leave their cars at home, she said.
The committee has seen an enthusiastic response from the Brown community, with significant increases in sales of monthly passes and RIPTIK booklets, Rider said. Participation has been "evenly split" between students and employees, she said.
It was this response that led to the subsidy's extension, Rider said.
"Because it seemed to be going well, we wanted to see if in the second half of the year our ridership would continue to increase," she said.
Rider said she doubted the subsidy - or any "demand management" program, for that matter - would ever become a "permanent" program, saying it will likely come under annual review "because the need for any particular program depends so much on what else is going on in transportation," such as fuel costs and budget allocation.
The RIPTA fare increase, which did not impact the cost of monthly passes, will likely have a "negligible" impact on participation in the subsidy, Teichert said.
Because the rate change primarily affects individual rides, the increase will likely have a minimal impact for daily users, he said.
