UPDATED: Governor McKee Blasts RIPTA for Failures in Letter to Board
GoLocalProv News Team
UPDATED: Governor McKee Blasts RIPTA for Failures in Letter to Board
Scott Avedisian, the former Republican Mayor of Warwick and the head of the agency, is not in the office this week.
He was appointed under Governor Gina Raimondo's administration.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTThe embattled agency is in significant chaos. There are dozens of driver vacancies. And the agency announced the slashing on routes across the state.
In late September, RIPTA announced that it will temporarily reduce service across the state frequencies beginning Saturday, October 22.
While RIPTA regularly makes service adjustments three times a year in response to seasonal changes and/or passenger use, this round of changes is "directly related to the agency’s struggle to competitively recruit new drivers in the current marketplace," said the quasi-public agency.
RIPTA will not be eliminating any routes, and the agency plans to reinstate service levels as they are currently scheduled as soon as manpower permits.
Failure to Provide Service to Providence Schools
RIPTA has repeatedly failed to provide full staffing for the transportation to Providence Schools -- as they had agreed.
McKee, in the letter to RIPTA board chair Norman Benoit, wrote, “Providence students are being negatively impacted by your organizatoin I was made aware that the issue of meeting the requirements necessary to fulfill the transportation for Providence students was known by your staff prior to the start of the school year.”
Nearly every day RIPTA buses have failed to provide transportation to Providence schools — on Thursday, 11 buses were impacted.
Cristy Raposo Perry, the spokeswoman for RIPTA could not answer how many children were impacted or how many have been impacted since the beginning of the issues.
McKee spokesperson Matt Sheaff said, “Today, the Governor sent …[a] letter to RIPTA’s Board calling for action regarding the PPSD transportation issues. The Governor believes the current situation is unacceptable and he has serious concerns regarding the agency’s ability to deliver on promises to address these PPSD transportation needs. At the Governor’s direction, his office has been engaged in discussions to explore the transfer of these school transportation services to a private provider.”
RIPTA is currently in negotiations with Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Division 618 (which represents RIPTA drivers) to increase starting hourly pay for van operators in an effort to become more competitive in the marketplace.
“Our goal is to always move transit forward. Reducing service is the last thing that we want to do as a transit agency,” said Avedisian in late September. “Unfortunately, the unprecedented labor shortage we are experiencing due to unforeseen impacts of COVID, coupled with eligible retirements make moving forward a challenge.”
National Guard
In September of 2021, Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker activated 250 National Guard members to drive school buses, citing local staffing shortages.