Requires New York city transit authority to conduct a public hearing before a substantial change in service, advertise the same and give due and proper consideration to such hearings before issuing a report on the hearings and either would reject or adopt the proposed substantial change in service unless such change will be for less than 180 days or in an emergency; grants any New York city resident a private equitable right of action pursuant thereto.
STATE OF NEW YORK
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5267
2013-2014 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
February 21, 2013
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Introduced by M. of A. BRENNAN, CLARK, GOTTFRIED, ORTIZ, COLTON, GIBSON
-- Multi-Sponsored by -- M. of A. ABBATE, AUBRY, COOK, DINOWITZ,
GLICK, JACOBS, MAISEL, MILLMAN, SCARBOROUGH -- read once and referred
to the Committee on Corporations, Authorities and Commissions
AN ACT to amend the public authorities law, in relation to public hear-
ings to be conducted by the New York city transit authority
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Section 1200 of the public authorities law is amended by
2 adding a new subdivision 19 to read as follows:
3 19. "Substantial change in service." A reduction or addition of rapid
4 transit or omnibus service furnished by the authority which has an
5 effect upon one thousand or more passengers daily. Substantial changes
6 in service shall include, but not be limited to, the elimination or
7 addition of passenger station stops on a service, a change of ten
8 percent or more in headways on a service, and a change of ten percent or
9 more in transit revenue miles on a service, but shall not include the
10 permanent or temporary closing of a passenger station.
11 § 2. Subdivision 4 of section 1205 of the public authorities law, as
12 added by chapter 717 of the laws of 1967, is amended to read as follows:
13 4. [From and after March first, nineteen hundred sixty-eight, no] (a)
14 No substantial [or general] change in [the levels of] service [furnished
15 upon the rapid transit facilities or the omnibus line facilities of the
16 authority] shall be instituted except [upon] after (i) not less than
17 thirty days' written notice to the mayor [and to the board of estimate]
18 and (ii) one or more public hearings held in the county or counties
19 where the substantial change in service will have an impact at least
20 thirty days prior to the institution of the substantial change in
21 service; and after the authority has provided notice of such hearings
22 through advertisements in newspapers and signs or posters in rapid tran-
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD09069-01-3
A. 5267 2
1 sit and omnibus line facilities, at least twenty days prior to the hear-
2 ing.
3 (b) The authority shall give due and proper consideration to the views
4 and comments expressed at the public hearings, especially as such views
5 and comments address the social, economic and environmental impact of
6 the substantial change in service. No later than twenty days after a
7 public hearing, and in no case later than five days prior to the insti-
8 tution of the substantial change in service, the authority shall issue a
9 report on the public hearings and either modify, reject or adopt the
10 proposed substantial change in service.
11 (c) This subdivision shall not apply to substantial changes in service
12 with a projected duration of less than one hundred eighty days, nor to
13 substantial changes in service resulting from an emergency such that
14 public hearings cannot take place without imperiling the safety of
15 passengers.
16 § 3. Section 1212 of the public authorities law is amended by adding
17 a new subdivision 7 to read as follows:
18 7. Any resident of the city of New York shall have standing to bring
19 an action pursuant to article seventy-eight of the civil practice law
20 and rules against the authority where such action arises under subdivi-
21 sion four or five of section twelve hundred five of this title.
22 § 4. This act shall take effect immediately.
