Rhode Island Public Transit Authority

We were treated like queens on the trolley service in Newport! We are the gals from southern New Hampshire who braved the horrible weather April 2−3…the trolley drivers on trolley 67… Dennis, Karen and another great guy were so kind and thoughtful to us. They took care of where we were through the sleet, snow, rain, and wind! They actually told each other to keep an eye on us… they made us feel so safe and special! They watched out for the «6 ladies»… Cliff Walk, mansion tours, and downtown… from Newport Marriott! Can to wait to come back. Thank you trolley drivers… you made a horrible weather wise weekend, warm and unforgettable!

Check out pic RIPTA GONE GAY the sun hit the scroll just right and turned the usual orange letters to fabulous rainbow letters I love it and should alwayse be rainbow in support lgbt ok here’s my. Review. Wow ripta, not sure how to describe their drivers attitudes. lets just say not pleasant. I do currently take bus seeing my car broke down so I took my pic my Unilocal profile pic down. Ive stood in the rain and freezing cold waiting for a bus that never came on many occasions, when I get a transfer good for two hours shouldnt it still be useable if bus is way late and past ur two hour deadline on transfer, after all they were late not me. So I took this pic one day while about 12 people waiting in freezing cold while bus driver locks bus door and just sits in there till the exact time on schedule, come on man bend the rules.

Once again ripta pulls a no show. Waiting at a stop a full ten minutes before the bus was to arrive only to have no bus arrive and have to wait another twenty minutes before the next. Obviously ripta thinks we all have the time to kill. How about if a bus doesn’t arrive at a stop on time we all get to ride for free? Hey ripta the next time you want to spend any money how about doing one on your on time rate.

Where to begin??? RIPTA is the ABSOLUTE WORST!
–Dirty disgusting busses.
–Rude and ignorant drivers.
–Loud and obnoxious people.
–Expensive monthly bus passes, RipTik, 7 day passes et cetera.
–Unreliable services (busses are always late, or too early, passing stops et cetera.
For Providence being such a small city and Rhode Island a small state, RIPTA is probably the worst public transit authority in the entire country.
Riding RIPTA is like that episode of Spongebob, when he took the wrong bus from Glove World and got stranded for the night in Rock Bottom. Spongebob could not catch the bus, no matter what he did, to get back to Bikini Bottom.
If I could give RIPTA no stars I would! I Hate RIPTA!

Great in theory, and you have people like Yolanda at the desk and some good drivers who make using this service a pleasure. But then you have other drivers who get road raged out and start fights with their passengers. Which, whatever. Shit happens. But then you have their actual customer service personel. Now I use the term customer service very loosely. They can’t help you at all, but the problem isn’t even that their machine screwed up and they refuse to give you your money back or even help. It’s that they won’t even try. «Oh, you misunderstood our machine, we’ll your money is mine now sucker». That’s the level of douche dome their customer service has reached. Oh, and ah Kevin perry, you suck.

They need to post better signs/​schedules on their website and on the bus stops. There is no bus stop after you finish your cliff walk. You have to walk to Marble House, which is another .25 miles, to get to the bus stop. It also stops running at 5:30pm on Sundays and holidays, in which case you have to walk all the way to the Breakers. So annoying because when you’re tired from a three hour hike, the last thing you want to do is walk another mile. It’s two dollars per person and the bus didn’t drop you off around the entrance of the cliff walk, you have to walk another five minutes.
There is no Über you can call either so double check the schedules.

Rip ta bus drivers staff has their attitude at times and at other times there good, meaning taking control on the bus for people to sit down and to move to the back because some people are rude when getting on the bus they just want to stand up in the front in the way when there’s room for them to move back, and when they have their negative attitude that’s what doesn’t get controlled they just get smart with you when you ask them a question and some drivers have a habit of closing in the door on pedestrians while getting on the bus its like they don’t want to let you on, and they also don’t wait till pedestrians sit down before driving off. and some will just drive pass your stop, and they are not on schedule.
Ripta should also put the electronic bus schedule on each bus stop like the ones they had up before down at Kennedy Plaza. Also needs to have a speed limit. And another thing you guys should let pedestrians who have a hard time lifting their shopping carts and luggage’s to use the ram also an especial when its packages to be dropped off at staples. One last thing you guys should get a hose and some cleaners to wash the inside and outside of the buses when they aren’t running to get the rid of all that funkiness also bus drivers need to have strict rules about bringing food or drinks on the buses to all pedestrians not some because some drunk lady’s came on bus 11 with their cough and spilled it all over the floor in the front and they was so drunk they couldn’t stay seated.

Uncle RIPTA will always pick you up… until it doesn’t.
If your RIPTA journey starts at Kennedy Plaza, you’ll probably fare much better than someone who has to wait for a transfer. That’s because the inbound buses are highly unpredictable, whereas the outbound buses always leave at the same time.
Until they don’t.
Sometimes, you’ll find yourself chasing down an outbound bus that left 5 – 6 minutes early. Then, magically, the next one comes 40 minutes late. You’ll see up to 4 buses with the same number pull up at the same time. How on earth does this happen?
The bright side? The bus drivers are typically very efficient at what they do. As a rule of thumb, not on the books, but they will generally drop you off in a safe location, even if that means not right at your stop due to issues with snow or floods.
The dark side? Kennedy Plaza. I think everyone at Kennedy Plaza must hate everyone else at Kennedy Plaza, because there are a lot of fights and a lot of hostility. There’s a smoking area, which is not in the bus shelter, so naturally, all the smokers light up in the bus shelter. Kennedy Plaza management tried to do something about this and failed.

If you work downtown and your employer doesn’t have a lot or pay for you to park then you’re looking at spending @ least $ 160−200/month for a spot. A monthly RIPTA pass is $ 62. I’d rather pocket the savings and go on a trip w it.
The buses are clean, unless some lazy person has left their 7-​Eleven extra jumbo freezy drink container on the seat.
Buses are at times late, but are timely for the majority.
Drivers friendliness is ⁵⁰⁄₅₀. They also deal w a lot of bungholes so I get it. One lady gives me a hard time if I don’t flag her down. She gets all sorts of sassy and says she doesn’t know if she needs to stop if we don’t indicate to her w a waving hand… I’m sorry, I’m standing at a friggen bus stop w 5 other ppl!
Oh and if you’re running to make it to the bus stop but are 20 ft away and flag the driver down 75% of them will just shake their head and keep going. Some drivers have road rage and aren’t good drivers, I’ve seen some break hard and fast and ppl actually fall over on the bus as a result.
But I love a couple of the guys. They say «hi» and «have a good day» and know how to drive.
Kennedy plaza is absolutely disgusting and as a woman you can’t walk through wo getting harassed. But they are presently cleaning it up, thank god and way to go :)
They recently dropped a bunch of stops which is irritating. I only live 5 miles from downtown and even I need to at times walk .25 miles or more. I run 20 plus miles a week, so I’m not lazy but if you’re running late, wearing heels and a skirt, it’s raining or it’s winter and dark and freezing then it sucks. Especially when there was a stop right outside my door.
But I continue to take the bus. I’ve seen some crazy crap on RIPTA and I love sharing the stories. Like one time an addict gave me a can of tuna fish.

RIPTA has a long (very long) way to go. With the most recent updates, they have added the R line which seems like a nice attempt to boost the efficiency of the most traveled route. These upgrades, however, have come at the expense of changes/​eliminations of other routes, becoming a great disservice to riders as a whole.
I live on two of the main lines, and I’m fortunate enough that both of my workplaces also happen to be on these routes, but even with these circumstances if I miss a bus, I will be over an hour late. I can’t even imagine what it must be like on lines outside of the capitol city.
Lest I begin a rant on the shortcomings of RIPTA’s scheduling, I’ll also comment on the conditions of their buses. Some of the newer buses are nice, and definitely ride better, but if you catch an older bus chances are your ride will be far less than ideal.
Issues you will find on new buses are amplified ten fold on older models. A great example of this is cleanliness. The buses as far as I can tell are not cleaned, or at least not cleaned well. While this might be tolerable on the newer models, I’ve had awful experiences on the older ones. Just this past week I offered my seat to a group of younger girls on an overcrowded bus, and after gripping the overhead rail my hand had turned black with filth.
My comments are just isolated examples, but trust me when I say there is no shortage of them. I can’t remember the last time I’ve heard something positive said about RIPTA, if I ever have, and I’ve been a Providence native for quite awhile.
As much as I support the idea of public transportation, I’m sorry to say that given the opportunity in RI, I opt out
*Edit*
I just wanted to add that despite the many shortcomings of this organization, the drivers have what is probably one of the toughest jobs in the state. (especially given the state of RI roads) They put up with a lot of BS day in and day out and regardless of that a lot of the drivers have really good attitudes. I always thank the driver when I get off the bus, and I think they deserve that recognition here too.

I think smaller busses and more routes would be better.

I rode public transit all three years in college. I love public transit when it works (I happily rode MUNI/​BART in SF during a 3 month internship), but I do not love RIPTA because it does not work. It is not suitable transportation for the third largest city in New England.
The bus schedule is ridiculous. They do not come frequently and are often late, which generally means leaving earlier than you should and doing a whole lot of advance planning. In all the other major cities I’ve lived in or spent time in, you didn’t even need a schedule. Transit came every couple minutes.
Second, the price is absurd for the quality of transit. The newer buses are nice, clean and typically have air conditioning, but the older ones tend to be dirty and worn out. I recently spent a few weeks in Europe, and all of the transit systems I used there were clean, modern, arrived on time and were affordable. The most expensive transit system I used cost roughly 1.75 a ride. It is also one of the only transit systems I have seen anywhere (Including Europe and the West Coast), where you do not receive a free transfer.
Third, the drivers do not announce major stops. So you better hope you have a map of where you are going, because the driver’s do not announce major stops and often do not know the neighborhood well enough to give directions. They just know their bus route. On more than on occasion, fellow passengers have had to assist them because the drivers had no idea how to direct them to their destination.
Fourth, it does not run on time. I used to arrive to my stop 10 – 15 minutes early to make sure I did not miss my bus, because buses frequently arrived up to 15 minutes early or 15 minutes late. When buses are scheduled every hour, this is not acceptable, because if you miss your bus you could be waiting for a significant amount of a time for another one. Similarly, buses stop running super early, which do not make it a viable option for getting home after a late night at bar or restaurant. Or even, an early night, because some buses stop running around 7 PM. Even as someone who recently bought a car, if the public transit system worked I would be happy to combine a car and transit to get around as I did when I lived in SF. I

I have a love/​hate relationship with Ripta. I take public transportation every day to get to and from work. Luckily, I live about a half mile from Kennedy Plaza so I can just walk. Transfers are a bitch!
There are 2 busses that go by my place of employment so I can usually get there when I need to during the week. For some reason Ripta thinks people only travel after 8am and before 7pm on the weekends tho.
They seem to keep hiking up the rates while cutting service. It’s $ 65 for a monthly pass which is outrageous because just north in Boston it’s $ 70 and that includes the buses and a subway system.
Busses are usually on time. If they are late it’s usually only by a few minutes. Something that I feel anyone who uses public transit should prepare for.
The drivers deal with crazy people all day so I can understand why they may come off harsh. I’ve found a simple «Hello, how are you?» when you board and a quick «Thank you» when you exit does wonders. I usually see the same drivers each day. Being friendly everyday goes a long way when you can’t find your pass. I’ve been given an ‘emergency transfer’ a few times just because I took the time to say «Hi.»

Worst bus line ever, but people are usually the downfall to almost everything. CLEAN HOUSE!!! It is not about the customer AT ALL. I put a 20 in yhe bill collector and the thing spit out a ticket with the remainder on it. I asked the bus driver how to exchange it and he said he did not know. I called customer service and the woman just didnt say anything. I said hello? She said hello, i repeat my question and she got quite. I asked for a supervisor, she got quite, i asked for her operator ID and she hung up on me. lol these people are the worst. Oh it wont let me give zero stars.

Ok so clearly I am in the minority here but I don’t mind commuting on the bus. Most of the folks on my route are on their way to work. Only once have I had a not pleasant driver but maybe he was having a bad day. The rest have been super pleasant and friendly.
Now if RIPTA was my only means of getting around I would probably not be happy.

Why are ALMOST all RIPTA bus drivers soo rude and ghetto? I don’t understand why they hate their jobs soo much.
I also don’t understand why they can’t have a bus route run more frequent.
They claim it’s because people don’t use certain routes as often… With high gas prices nowadays if the system was more reliable people would utilize public transportation more.
The schedule times make no sense… The 60 is also a joke. Sometimes it will run right past me while im standing at the stop because its too full… People have jobs and have to get to work. Why is it soo hard for Rhode Island to just get a reliable means of transportation.

Using the RIPTA for the sole purpose of getting to the airport more than exceeded my expectations.
I could have taken a cab for $ 25 — $ 30, but when I found out the RIPTA bus could get me there for only $ 2 and the stop was less than two blocks from my downtown hotel, my recessionista side kicked in.
25 minutes after boarding the almost empty bus, I was dropped off right at the terminal. Easy, breezy, beautiful!
Saving money is HOT.

I take the bus because I hate cars. I don’t even know where to begin describing how pathetic RIPTA and the state of RI are.
1. We’ll start with routes. They cut them on what seems to be an annual basis, if you don’t live in PVD or go to URI the bus will only come at incredibly inconvenient times and will usually be late. And they wonder why so few people take it.
2. The trolley service. Usually it is timely but not the CCRI Providence campus/​hospital route, no matter what time I waited for it, the bus drivers would kick their feet up and take a ten minute break (minimum). This sucks if you have work a half hour after class and it takes 20 minutes to get downtown to begin with. They seriously do this every time they stop and it blows my mind. They must spend hours a day on break.
3. The COST. Another reason I can see why people do not take it. Right now it’s up to two dollars one way, even if you’re on the friggin trolley! The monthly pass is $ 62. Are you kidding me? In addition to this, for a while they cut the student 50% discount on bus passes which is so bogus I can’t even process it. Sixty two dollars for incredibly mediocre and inconsistent service. That doesn’t even really get me anywhere that I need to be.
I saw someone on here complaining about the «crackheads» and other people on the bus. Look, I don’t doubt you’ve seen your share of crackheads on the bus, but did it ever occur to you that maybe some of these people are just poor? Thanks for perpetuating the negative stereotype that everyone who rides the bus is a drug addict. It should be stated that apart from Broad St. I really haven’t ever seen anything except maybe a few alcoholics.
Get it together, Rhode Island.

I’ll be honest. RIPTA is definitely not my bff. To back up for a sec here, peeps, I’ve used public transportation in many ‘a places including (but not limited to), Philadelphia, Boston, NYC, Worcester, Pittsburgh, Portland & middle of nowhere Centre County (PA). The way I sees it, if a random county in the splat center of mountains, fields and cow country can get it right, why can’t the oh-​so spectacular state of RI even somewhat measure up?
Broad St. sucks hardcore: the bus runs every 15 minutes or so & I can’t even begin to count the number of times I’ve been denied entry due to total and maximum capacity being reached. Wow. The places where a route is badly needed, there are absolutely none and when there are, we’ll be lucky if we see a bus once or twice a day. At the very least, one upon a century ago when ‘lil olé me was a cute High School gal, bus passes for students had no restrictions, no time limitations and were totally free. Apparently, not anymore. I feel for those disadvantaged kids who might actually want to, you know, take an after school or weekend elective. Not cool, RIPTA.
I genuinely wish I weren’t coming across as completely bitter but honestly, my experiences over a very long, stretched out time period with these folks have been less than good. I’ve been treated to everything from being kicked off the bus for having a (covered) drink, completely ignored at a legitimate bus stop (drive by) and waiting for a connecting transfer that refused to show up (in trouble). One star for existing, a second for offering free services on poor air quality days.

I have lived in many cities in my life from San Francisco, Seattle, Portland, Houston, NY, Boston, and all others in between.
RIPTA has to be the worst of the worst bus service I’ve ever encountered. The bus arrives late all the time. Budget cuts have cut entire routes and cut service time drastically.
If RIPTA is your only way to get to work I hope to god you get to work on time and can get home. I’ve been late so many times to my job due to this shitty service.
If you need a bus to get to work and you need to take two of them, be prepared to get up VERY early. What is normally a 15 – 20 minute car ride can easily stretch 1 hour 15 minutes between two buses and some massive wait time.
I used to bus everyday from Providence to Newport (and back) for work. This is a 40 – 45 minute car ride. Because I needed two buses it took me a total of 1 hour and 38 minutes (including wait time) on weekdays. It took 2 hours and 9 minutes on Sundays and holidays. Your entire life will be wasted waiting for buses in the cold.