N.Y. Transportation Law § 159: Complaints as to rates, fares and service

§ 159. Complaints as to rates, fares and service. 1. Upon the

complaint in writing of the county executive or board of supervisors of

a county, the mayor of a city, the trustees or mayor of a village or the

town board of a town in which a common carrier of passengers by motor

vehicle is authorized to operate, or upon the complaint in writing of

not less than twenty-five persons in any such municipality, or upon

complaint of a common carrier of passengers by motor vehicle supplying

such service, as to the rates, fares or charges demanded, received or

collected, or as to the methods employed in furnishing such service or

as to the amount of service furnished or as to extension of a route or

routes, the commissioner or a representative of the commissioner may

inspect the property, equipment and appliances and methods used by such

common carrier of passengers by motor vehicle in furnishing such

service, and may cause an investigation as to the necessity of any

proposed extensions, and may examine or cause to be examined the books

and papers of such common carrier of passengers by motor vehicle

pertaining to such service in such municipality. The form and contents

of complaints made as provided in this section shall be prescribed by

the commissioner. Such complaints shall be signed by the officers, or by

the persons making them, who must add to their signatures their places

of residence, by street and number, if any.

2. Before proceeding under a complaint presented as provided in

subdivision one of this section, the commissioner shall cause notice of

such complaint, and the purpose thereof, to be served upon the common

carrier of passengers by motor vehicle affected thereby. Such common

carrier of passengers by motor vehicle shall have an opportunity to be

heard in respect to the matters complained of at a time and place to be

specified in such notice. An investigation may be instituted by the

commissioner as to any matter of which complaint may be made, as

provided in subdivision one of this section, or to ascertain the facts

requisite to the exercise of any powers. After a hearing and after such

an investigation as shall have been made, the commissioner may, by

order, fix the just and reasonable rates, fares and charges to be

charged by the common carrier of passengers by motor vehicle for the

service to be furnished and the amount of service furnished, and may

order such extension of an existing route or routes as is deemed

necessary, and may order such improvement in such service, or in the

methods employed by such common carrier of passengers by motor vehicle

as will be adequate, just and reasonable. Any change in rates, fares,

charges, routes or amount of service shall be upon such terms,

conditions or safeguards as the commissioner may prescribe. If it shall

be made to appear to the satisfaction of the commissioner that the

public interest requires a change in rates, fares, charges, routes or

service or that such change is necessary for the purpose of providing

adequate and efficient service, or for the preservation of the property,

the commissioner, upon such terms, conditions or safeguards as are

deemed proper, may authorize an immediate, reasonable, temporary

increase or decrease in such rates, fares, charges, routes or service

pending a final determination of the rates, fares, charges, routes and

service to be thereafter charged by such common carrier of passengers by

motor vehicle. The terms, conditions or safeguards prescribed may

include provisions for the purposes for which the additional revenue

derived from any such temporary increase may be expended and for the

impounding thereof until the same shall be applied to the purposes so

specified. The rate or fare fixed by the commissioner under this section

shall be the rate or fare to be charged by such common carrier of

passengers by motor vehicle for the service to be furnished until the

commissioner shall fix in the manner heretofore described a higher or

lower rate or fare to be thereafter charged. In determining the rates

and fares to be charged or the service to be furnished or the necessity

of extension of an existing route or routes, the commissioner may

consider all facts which have any bearing upon a proper determination of

the question although not set forth in the complaint and not within the

allegations contained therein, with due regard among other things to

revenue levels that are necessary and adequate under efficient

management to cover total operating expenses plus a reasonable profit.

At any hearing involving a rate, the burden of proof to show that the

change in rate or fare if proposed by the common carrier of passengers

by motor vehicle, or that the existing rate or fare, if on motion of the

commissioner or in a complaint filed with the commissioner it is

proposed to reduce the rate or fare, is just and reasonable shall be

upon the common carrier of passengers by motor vehicle and the

commissioner may give to the hearing and decision of such questions

preference over all other questions pending and decide the same as

speedily as possible.