RIPTA may have to trim services By Associated Press, 4/1/2000 13:39 PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) The Rhode Island Public Transit Authority says automobile drivers aren't the only ones hit by soaring fuel prices.

The bus service may have to ask for $500,000 in state funds to keep the buses running this year.

The agency budgeted $1.1 million for fuel based on cost of 69 cents a gallon. But it's now paying 97 cents a gallon and says without more money, it may have to trim its services.

Transit officials, however, are confident the General Assembly will approve a supplemental request and save them from reducing service.

''We don't want our public to panic, because we think we're going to work this issue out,'' RIPTA spokesman Lee Beliveau told The Providence Journal. ''We are doing everything possible not to have to reduce any routes.''

Oil and fuel prices began rising last spring when the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) cut crude oil production to boost prices that had fallen to 12-year lows.

''This is happening nationally and right now what people need to understand is we get hit just like everyone else,'' Beliveau said.

About 60 percent of RIPTA's $46.6 million budget already comes from state subsidies. Federal subsidies make up another 10 percent and fares make up the remaining 30 percent of its budget.

''We've been talking with the governor's office and the administration and letting them know that we're looking at some problems here,'' Beliveau said.

Normally the agency would be able to absorb the additional fuel costs, but this year the agency also had an increase in health care expenses for its workers.

Other than reduce bus service, ''the only thing we could do is raise fares,'' he said, ''and I wouldn't recommend that because we would lose riders, too.''

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-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), April 02, 2000