New York Codes, Rules and Regulations › Title 17 - DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION › Chapter VI - Transportation Regulations › Subchapter G - Mass Transportation Operating Assistance › Part 980 - Rural Public Transportation Coordination Assistance Program Rules And Regulations › Section 980.8 - Designation of coordinated service operator

Current through Register Vol. 46, No. 28, July 10, 2024
(a) General requirements. On or before
				  completion of its draft coordinated public transportation service plan, a rural
				  county recipient of planning and implementation funds shall designate an
				  operator of passenger transportation to be its Coordinated Service Operator
				  (CSO). The county's Coordinated Service Operator shall be responsible for the
				  management, control, operation and maintenance of all elements, including any
				  specialized components, of the county's coordinated public transportation
				  service as described in the county's adopted and approved plan, and at the
				  county's discretion, for applying for future operating and capital assistance
				  grants, and future updating of the county's plan. The county government itself
				  or a public transportation authority may be designated as the CSO (see also
				  Section
				  980.11 
				  of this Part), or a county may contract with another entity to be the CSO. If a
				  county contracts with another entity, a competitive process for choosing the
				  CSO must be used to afford private bus and taxi operators, or any other
				  qualified party, an opportunity to operate the service. In such cases, the CSO
				  must be an entity that has been granted or will obtain operating authority from
				  the Department as a common carrier of the general public, for the coordinated
				  service. If a County Government itself already owns and operates a public
				  transportation service, it is expected that the county will designate itself as
				  its CSO. In such cases, if the county does not designate itself, justification
				  for establishing another public transportation service within the county,
				  including the economy, efficiency and effectiveness of doing so, and the
				  prospects of avoiding service duplication, must be included in the county's
				  plan. The designated CSO must be an operator that is administratively,
				  financially and operationally capable of managing and operating a countywide
				  transportation system and one that is, or will be, willing and able to provide
				  general purpose passenger transportation without preference to any population
				  sub-group or agency affiliated clientele. If the designated CSO is one that did
				  not have a prior history as a general purpose transportation operator, the
				  process used and the operator designated must be included as a subject of the
				  public hearing on the county's draft plan. In some cases, a new private,
				  non-profit corporation may be established to be the CSO. If the designated CSO
				  is an existing private, non-profit corporation, that corporation must modify
				  its articles of incorporation as necessary to establish it as an operator of
				  general purpose passenger transportation and agree to obtain operating
				  authority from the Department as a common carrier of the general
				  public.
(b) Sub-contracted
				  Services. For other than infrequent or incidental trips, and in some limited
				  circumstances, a coordinated service operator in a rural county may purchase,
				  through sub-contract, portions of the county's coordinated service from other
				  transportation operators, under the following conditions:
(1) justification for doing so must be
				  provided in the county's adopted plan and that justification must be based upon
				  one or more of the following:
(i) the need to
				  provide greater geographic area coverage by the coordinated service;
(ii) the need for specialized services, as
				  defined in this Part, which may be market-segmented services based upon the
				  differing amounts of physical assistance or service level quality needed by
				  passengers;
(iii) the need to
				  provide out-of-county services; or
(iv) the need to extend the hours of service
				  availability to evening or weekend periods;