Code Section

99280.  

An included municipal operator shall not establish a public transportation system either by adding new routes or extending existing routes, by acquisition or otherwise, outside of its boundaries and outside of the reserved service area consisting of the area that would be formed by joining all points that are distant three-quarters of one mile from any point of any of its regularly scheduled routes in existence and in operation on March 1, 1971. No point within such reserved service area shall be more than three-quarters of a mile from a point on one of such regularly scheduled routes, without first providing the governing board of the transit district with a 60-day advance written notice of its intention to add new routes or extend existing routes outside of the reserved service area. Within 30 days of receiving such written notice, the governing body of the transit district shall either (a) notify the included municipal operator that the transit district does not intend to add or extend the routes in question itself, in which case the included municipal operator may proceed with implementation of its plans; or (b) serve immediate notice upon the included municipal operator that the transit district desires to establish the proposed new service itself and is otherwise not precluded from doing so. In the event that the governing body of the transit district elects to provide the service in question, it shall institute such service within 60 days of the time proposed by the included municipal operator for initiation of such service.

The operation by included municipal operators of new or extended routes established pursuant to this section are subject to the condition whereby the transit district may assume operation of such new or extended routes, if it is not otherwise precluded from doing so, after a 60-day notification by the transit district to the included municipal operator. No route so assumed by the transit district may be abandoned by the transit district without first serving a 60-day written notice of intent to abandon on the included municipal operator which previously provided the service. Subsequent to the abandonment by the transit district, the included municipal operator may, at its option, resume service if it is not otherwise precluded from doing so.

Any included municipal operator, as a condition precedent to filing a claim under Article 4 (commencing with Section 99260) of this chapter, shall file with the transportation planning agency a certified route map showing those regularly scheduled routes in existence and in operation on March 1, 1971, outside of its boundaries. Such certified map shall also indicate by an appropriate legend the service area where the consent of the transit district is not required under the terms of this section.

The establishment of new routes, or the extension of existing routes, outside the boundaries of an included municipal operator, but within the reserved service area, as defined in this section, shall not be permitted where the operation or establishment of such routes will compete with or divert patronage from a route of the transit district as of the date the transit district is given the notice hereinafter required. Before any such new routes are established or existing routes are extended, the included municipal operator shall give the transit district an appropriate 60-day notice.