AMENDED IN SENATE AUGUST 12, 2019

AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY APRIL 23, 2019

CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2019–2020 REGULAR SESSION

95

CHAPTER 233

Statutes of 2019

[ Approved by Governor September 5, 2019. Filed with Secretary of State September 5, 2019. ]

Introduced by Assembly Member Boerner Horvath

(Coauthors: Assembly Members Choi, Kalra, and Santiago)

February 21, 2019

An act to add Section 1202.4 to the Public Utilities Code, relating to railroads.

Vote: majority   Appropriation: no   Fiscal committee: yes   Local program: no

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST

Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission has the exclusive power to, among other things, determine and prescribe the manner and the terms of installation, operation, maintenance, use, and protection of specified railroad crossings and to authorize on an application-by-application basis and supervise the operation of pilot projects to evaluate proposed crossing warning devices, new technology, or other additional safety measures at designated crossings, with the consent of the local jurisdiction, the affected railroad, and other interested parties, including, but not limited to, represented railroad employees.

This bill would require the commission, if a city or county develops and adopts, by resolution upon a majority vote of the city council or the board of supervisors, a plan to improve mobility for multimodal access that calls for new or modified railroad crossings, to make an engineer available from the Rail Crossings and Engineering Branch to assist and advise that city or county on the safety of the planned railroad crossings before the filing of an application to the commission for the approval of the new or modified railroad crossings.

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:

SECTION 1.

Section 1202.4 is added to the Public Utilities Code, to read:

1202.4.

If a city or county develops and adopts, by resolution upon a majority vote of the city council or the board of supervisors, a plan to improve mobility for multimodal access that calls for new or modified railroad crossings, the commission shall make an engineer available from the Rail Crossings and Engineering Branch to assist and advise that city or county on the safety of the planned railroad crossings before the filing of an application to the commission for the approval of the new or modified railroad crossings.