Sen. Reed Announces $8M in Funding to Build RIPTA Hubs at URI & CCRI
GoLocalProv Business Team
Sen. Reed Announces $8M in Funding to Build RIPTA Hubs at URI & CCRI
“This is good news for URI, CCRI, and everyone who uses RIPTA. This federal investment will help RIPTA build new facilities and provide reliable service to and from URI and CCRI. It will literally make higher education opportunities more accessible for Rhode Islanders,” said Reed.
Currently, URI and CCRI serve nearly 35,000 students a year and generate nearly 1 million RIPTA trips, roughly 6 percent of RIPTA’s annual ridership.
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The new bus hubs and fleet acquisitions will help meet the growing need for more transit service at CCRI and URI. ‘
“The creation of these two hubs will help improve access to education in our state and also create better transit access in these areas for the public in general. We also want to thank our partners at URI and CCRI who are making long-term commitments to public transportation and also benefitting their surrounding communities,” said Scott Avedisian, RIPTA’s Chief Executive Officer.
In addition to addressing parking and congestion challenges, this investment will make these educational institutions more accessible, improve intermodal connections, and better align RIPTA service to meet ridership demand.
RIPTA’s current hub at Warwick Mall is the transit authority’s sole gateway to the southern portion of the state and many of those passengers are students at CCRI.
Creating a new hub at the campus will better serve those students and provide better connections to other destinations.
Major destinations that will benefit from the new hubs and improved transit connectivity in the southern part of the state include: T.F. Green Airport, the MBTA commuter rail station at Wickford Junction in North Kingstown, South County Commons, the Amtrak train station in Kingston, and ferry connections at Galilee in the town of Narragansett.