If a metropolitan municipal corporation shall be authorized to perform the function of metropolitan transportation, it shall have the following powers in addition to the general powers granted by this chapter:

     (1) To prepare, adopt, and carry out a general comprehensive plan for public transportation service which will best serve the residents of the metropolitan area and to amend said plan from time to time to meet changed conditions and requirements.

     (2) To acquire by purchase, condemnation, gift, or grant and to lease, construct, add to, improve, replace, repair, maintain, operate, and regulate the use of metropolitan transportation facilities and properties within or without the metropolitan area, including systems of surface, underground, or overhead railways, tramways, buses, or any other means of local transportation except taxis, and including escalators, moving sidewalks, or other people-moving systems, passenger terminal and parking facilities and properties, and such other facilities and properties as may be necessary for passenger and vehicular access to and from such people-moving systems, terminal and parking facilities and properties, together with all lands, rights-of-way, property, equipment, and accessories necessary for such systems and facilities. Public transportation facilities and properties which are owned by any city may be acquired or used by the metropolitan municipal corporation only with the consent of the city council of the city owning such facilities. Cities are hereby authorized to convey or lease such facilities to metropolitan corporations or to contract for their joint use on such terms as may be fixed by agreement between the city council of such city and the metropolitan council, without submitting the matter to the voters of such city.

     The facilities and properties of a metropolitan public transportation system whose vehicles will operate primarily within the rights-of-way of public streets, roads, or highways, may be acquired, developed and operated without the corridor and design hearings which are required by *RCW 35.58.273 for mass transit facilities operating on a separate right-of-way.

     (3) To fix rates, tolls, fares, and charges for the use of such facilities and to establish various routes and classes of service. Fares or charges may be adjusted or eliminated for any distinguishable class of users including, but not limited to, senior citizens, handicapped persons, and students. Classes of service and fares will be maintained in the several parts of the metropolitan area at such levels as will provide, insofar as reasonably practicable, that the portion of any annual transit operating deficit of the metropolitan municipal corporation attributable to the operation of all routes, taken as a whole, which are located within the central city is approximately in proportion to the portion of total taxes collected by or on behalf of the metropolitan municipal corporation for transit purposes within the central city, and that the portion of such annual transit operating deficit attributable to the operation of all routes, taken as a whole, which are located outside the central city, is approximately in proportion to the portion of such taxes collected outside the central city.

     In the event any metropolitan municipal corporation shall extend its metropolitan transportation function to any area or service already offered by any company holding a certificate of public convenience and necessity from the Washington utilities and transportation commission under RCW 81.68.040, it shall by purchase or condemnation acquire at the fair market value, from the person holding the existing certificate for providing the services, that portion of the operating authority and equipment representing the services within the area of public operation.

[1981 c 25 § 1; 1971 ex.s. c 303 § 8; 1967 c 105 § 11; 1965 c 7 §35.58.240 . Prior: 1957 c 213 § 24.]

NOTES:

     *Reviser's note: RCW 35.58.273 was repealed by 2002 c 6 § 2.