The Providence Train Station on Gaspee Street. (Alexander Castro/Rhode Island Current)
A final recommendation for the Rhode Island Public Transit Authority’s (RIPTA) new state-of-the-art transit facility will be ready as early as late November, the agency’s interim leader told its governing board last week.
But we already know where it’s not going to be.
RIPTA Interim CEO Christopher Durand announced Oct. 21 that the agency was no longer interested in building on a 2.15-acre lot in Providence’s I-195 Redevelopment District, a decision he attributed to customer feedback. Many transit advocates have long-opposed the 195 parcel, saying that the site is too far from most downtown Providence destinations, including Kennedy Plaza, which has served as a centralized bus depot since the early 1980s.
Now it appears the leading contender is a site first proposed by the state’s Department of Transportation nearly a decade ago: the Providence Amtrak train station on Gaspee Street.
Priority is now being given to the two locations close to the train station.