RIPTA invites public to weigh in on new transit center

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WLNE) — The Rhode Island Public Transit Authority is looking for your input on its future transit hub.

The project has seen community backlash as advocates say they’re moving transit away from the people who need it.

Between 4 and 7 p.m. Monday you can swing by the Amica Mutual Pavilion to weigh in on a new proposed transit center here in the Ocean State, as RIPTA looks for community feedback in the process.

This is the first of four public input meetings as officials with RIPTA said they’re still early in this process.

But even at this stage, community members have been outspoken against moving the transit hub away from Kennedy Plaza, saying the move would take access away from some of the community members who need it most.

“This is our chance to kind of prove what we’ve been saying. Which is we want public engagement; we want to figure this out. I think there’s a lot of people who think ‘hey it’s just going here and that’s it,'” said Chris Durand, Interim RIPTA CEO.

“That’s not true, that can’t be true, there’s literally federal rules that prevent us from doing something like that. So, I don’t know what we’re going to hear, but my hope is that people leave tonight feeling better about the overall project.”

Advocates who spoke with ABC6 said they’re not fully opposed to moving the transit hub, but say they need the state to make sure RIPTA is funded and avoids route cuts before anything else.

The meeting will start at 4 p.m. at the Amica Mutual Pavilion in Providence and will run until 7 p.m.

Durand says you can stop in for however long you want to weigh in on the project.

Three more meetings are expected but they haven’t been set as of yet.