It is the intent of the Legislature to improve existing public transportation services and encourage regional public transportation coordination. The Legislature recognizes that in the Southern California Rapid Transit District a unique factual situation exists where several municipal bus systems are providing essential local transportation services within the operating territory of the district, which was created by the Legislature to provide areawide coordinated public transportation services. Within the Southern California Rapid Transit District, as with all transportation service improvements in the County of Los Angeles, the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority shall be the governmental entity responsible to establish a unified or officially coordinated public transportation system as part of the comprehensively planned development of the urban area. Both the Southern California Rapid Transit District and the included municipalities that operate bus systems within the jurisdiction of the district are permitted to file claims pursuant to this chapter upon the local transportation fund of the County of Los Angeles; provided, however, any approved claim shall not be allowed for the purpose of the establishment by the included municipal operator after January 1, 1980, of new transportation services that do not meet the criteria established by the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority for the development of new services. It is the intent of the Legislature that the Southern California Rapid Transit District should not be inhibited in its effort to improve transit services within the region by the expansion outside the reserved service areas of the several municipal bus systems of the involved municipalities. The policy of the Legislature is that new services to meet public transportation needs outside of the municipalities presently operating bus systems which do not compete with, or divert patronage from, an existing operating bus system of an included municipal applicant under Section 99280, shall be provided and controlled by the Southern California Rapid Transit District, in complete cooperation and coordination with the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, in its role as the responsible public agency for providing public transportation systems and facilities within the region.
(Amended by Stats. 2010, Ch. 491, Sec. 7. (SB 1318) Effective January 1, 2011.)