New Zealand Legislation: Acts
Acts are laws made by Parliament
(1) A regional council may specify a control in a regional public transport plan, if—
(a) the regional council—
(i) has used reasonable endeavours to ascertain whether the inclusion of the control in the plan is likely to have a material adverse effect on any existing commercial services in the region; and
(ii) has properly considered the impact of the control on existing commercial services in the region and the operators of those services; and
(b) the regional council is satisfied that—
(i) the control is consistent with the purpose of the plan after taking into account the matters referred to in section 19; and
(ii) the control contributes to the implementation of the policies in the plan; and
(iii) the policy that the control is intended to help implement cannot be more effectively implemented in any other way.
(2) If a regional council specifies a control in a regional public transport plan, it may also specify in the plan—
(a) any transitional arrangements (which may be any 1 or more of delaying the commencement date of the control, providing financial or other assistance to operators, or anything else that assists operators to comply with the control) that the regional council, in its discretion, has or will put in place to alleviate any material adverse effects that the council considers the control is likely to have on existing commercial services; or
(b) the process that the regional council will adopt for determining any such transitional arrangements.
(3) A control may—
(a) require a minimum period not exceeding 12 months for the operation of any commercial public transport service (which must include any period of notice required for varying or withdrawing the service) immediately following the commencement of—
(i) the registered commercial public transport service:
(ii) a variation to the registered commercial public transport service:
(b) require a person who operates, or wishes to operate, a service that the plan has specified is to be operated as part of a group, to operate all the services in the group as commercial public transport services, whether or not on the same route,—
(i) if the regional council is satisfied that the operating costs of the services in the group will be less if they are operated by 1 operator than if they are operated by more than 1 operator; and
(ii) regardless of how the services in the group are operated on the date the control is specified in the plan:
(c) require a commercial public transport service on a specified route to operate according to the frequency, capacity, and times specified in the regional public transport plan for the operation of a public transport service on that route:
(d) require any commercial public transport service to comply with specified quality standards and performance standards:
(e) require any commercial public transport service to be an integrated service:
(f) require common emblems, signs, or designs (but not common colour schemes) for vehicles or other modes of transport used in integrated services in the region:
(g) require the operator of any commercial public transport service to use integrated technology specified in the regional public transport plan:
(h) require the operator of any commercial public transport service to issue, use, and accept an integrated ticket specified in the regional public transport plan:
(i) set and apportion integrated fares on a reasonable basis without undue discrimination and in accordance with 1 or more of the following factors:
(i) time:
(ii) zone:
(iii) mode of travel:
(iv) any concessionary fares policy:
(v) the number of journeys to be travelled:
(j) require the operator of any commercial public transport service to collect on behalf of other operators an integrated fare that is set in accordance with a control made under paragraph (i):
(k) specify the point at which an integrated fare becomes payable:
(l) require the operator of any commercial public transport service to accept a portion of an integrated fare that is set in accordance with a control made under paragraph (i), as full payment for travel on the service:
(m) provide that the operator of any commercial public transport service may not collect an additional fare from a passenger who transfers from another service on which the passenger has already paid an integrated fare, if the integrated fare includes payment for the passenger’s travel on the operator’s service:
(n) require anything that is permitted by regulations made under this Act.
(4) If a regional council has contracted a public transport service of a similar class to a commercial public transport service, a control may impose no greater requirements or higher standards on the commercial public transport service than the requirements or standards applying under the contract to the contracted public transport service.
(5) For the purposes of subsection (4), the contract that imposes the lesser requirement is the relevant contract for the purposes of comparison with a control if—
(a) there is more than 1 contracted public transport service of a similar class to the commercial public transport service; and
(b) the contracted public transport services are provided under separate contracts; and
(c) the contracts impose different requirements on the contracted public transport services.
(6) Subclause (4) does not apply to a control of the type described in subclause (3)(b).
(7) If a regional council has reasonable grounds to believe that the inclusion of a control in a regional public transport plan may result in the withdrawal of an existing commercial service that is described in the plan, the regional council may only include the control in the plan if—
(a) there is a similar public transport service available to users of the existing commercial service; or
(b) the plan states that the regional council intends that, if the existing commercial service is withdrawn, it will replace it with a similar public transport service.
(8) A control may not be made for the purpose of eliminating any existing commercial service.
(9) Different types of controls in a regional public transport plan may be applied to different classes or descriptions of public transport services.
(10) A regional council may not adopt a control that—
(a) applies to a commercial public transport service that—
(i) operates outside the region to which the regional public transport plan applies; or
(ii) is specified by regulations made under this Act as an exempt commercial public transport service for the purposes of this section; or
(b) would require an operator to breach a rule made under the Land Transport Act 1998 or the Maritime Transport Act 1994.
(11) A control may, subject to subsection (10), apply to any commercial public transport service, whether or not the service is described in the regional public transport plan as a public transport service that the regional council proposes to be provided in its region.
(12) A control is not a regulation for the purposes of the Regulations (Disallowance) Act 1989.
(13) For the purposes of this section, operating costs means the cost to an operator of operating a public transport service before any revenue is taken into account.
