RI's most popular bus route, the R-Line, is free starting today. Here's why.

If you've been meaning to take the bus more often, good news: As of today, Sept. 1, the most popular line in Rhode Island is fare-free.

No need to fumble around for two dollars in change, or worry about whether you've loaded money onto your Wave card.

In the final days of the General Assembly session, lawmakers approved a one-year pilot program that will eliminate fares along the R-Line, the most heavily used bus line in the state.

The sponsor, Sen. Meghan Kallman, D-Pawtucket, had previously introduced legislation that would have made all RIPTA bus rides free — an idea that the transit agency expressed reservations about.

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The R-Line runs from the Cranston city line to downtown Providence, with stops at Kennedy Plaza and the train station, then up North Main Street through the East Side. It ends at the Pawtucket Transit Center, across the street from Slater Mill.

It's RIPTA's first "rapid route," which means that buses are equipped with technology that keeps traffic lights green as they approach.

Buses also arrive with far more frequency than on other RIPTA routes: Between 5 a.m. and 7 p.m., there's a bus scheduled every 10 minutes. From 7 p.m. to 12:30 p.m., a bus leaves every 20 minutes.

The General Assembly has set aside $2.5 million for the pilot program, which is intended to replace the revenue that RIPTA would normally receive from passenger fares, Kallman told The Providence Journal in June.

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She's optimistic that the change will become permanent, and that fares will gradually be eliminated on other lines.

"We could conceivably be, and I think are very likely to be, the first state in the country where we have a fare-free transit system," she said.

In past years, passenger fares have covered about a quarter of RIPTA's operating expenses. The bulk of the transit agency's funding comes from state and federal subsidies.

What will the pilot program do?

When it authorized the funding, the General Assembly directed RIPTA to "track ridership data related to the pilot program and submit a report to the speaker of the house, the president of the senate, and the governor no later than March 1, 2024."

Kallman said the goal is to get a sense of how ridership changes and whether that leads to delays. In Boston, which is experimenting with making several routes fare-free, any potential slowdowns from increased ridership appear to have been offset by the fact that riders don't have to pay when they board, she said.

Locally, another free transit pilot program has been underway in Central Falls since March.

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Through March 2023, anyone boarding the bus in Central Falls can ride for free. However, riders still need to swipe their Wave card or show their Wave mobile app in order to take advantage of that benefit. They also need to load money on the Wave pass in order to pay for rides back home.

Why run a second pilot program at the same time? The Central Falls pilot "is great but it’s small," said Kallman, noting that she has a "day job" as a social scientist. (She is on the faculty at UMass Boston.) "You need enough data to do something meaningful."

Since riders won't be paying a fare when they board, Automated Passenger Counters will be installed on the R-line buses, Raposo Perry said when the pilot program was announcedin June. Some of the funds set aside by the Assembly will be used for the counters and for performing the analysis for the report.

In April and May 2022, the R-Line averaged 6,041 trips per weekday, 3,644 per Saturday, and 2,915 per Sunday, according to RIPTA.

RIPTA expects going fare-free to speed up the boarding process, and will not be making any schedule changes, Raposo Perry said.

Why make the bus free?

Advocates for free public transportation say that, among other things, it's a way to give a leg up to people who are on the lower end of the socioeconomic spectrum.

"For families that take the bus regularly, transit accounts for between 15 to 20% of people’s monthly income," Kallman said.

Additionally, supporters say, making it easier for people to take the bus instead of driving will be good for the environment — and lead to less traffic congestion and parking headaches.

"We’re a tiny state," Kallman said. "It’s not sensible to expect that everyone has a car and can use it."

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There's also hopes that it can boost business. Mayors across the country see free transit as a way to "entice people and businesses back to urban centers," Politico recently reported.

The R-Line was chosen for the pilot because it already has the highest ridership numbers, which means going fare-free will give "the biggest boost" to the largest number of people, Kallman said.

On a national level, some transit advocates would prefer to see any new public funding go toward expanding service, rather than replacing the revenue that comes from fares. Locally, however, groups such as the Providence Streets Coalition have applauded the pilot while also calling for more investment in expanding service.

Within the General Assembly, objections have largely come from conservatives who represent rural areas of the state where there is little or no RIPTA service at all.

The plan to make the R-Line free has been "greeted with delight among the regular ridership," Kallman said.

"First-class cities have good transit," she said. "That is one of the things that big global cities invest in."

This story has been updated.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Providence R-Line bus will not have a fare in September