Sec. 452.001. DEFINITIONS. In this chapter:

(1) "Authority" means a regional transportation authority created under this chapter or Chapter 683, Acts of the 66th Legislature, Regular Session, 1979. The term includes:

(A) when used in Subchapters B, C, D, F, H, and I and Sections 452.201 and 452.451, a subregional authority created by a contiguous municipality; and

(B) as appropriate, an authority, other than an authority created by a contiguous municipality, consisting of one subregion.

(2) "Complementary transportation services" includes:

(A) special transportation services for a person who is elderly or has a disability;

(B) medical transportation services;

(C) assistance in street modifications as necessary to accommodate the public transportation system;

(D) construction of new general aviation facilities or renovation or purchase of existing facilities not served by certificated air carriers to relieve air traffic congestion at existing facilities; and

(E) any other service that complements the public transportation system, including providing parking garages.

(3) "Contiguous municipality" means a municipality that has a boundary contiguous with a principal municipality and having:

(A) a population of more than 250,000, according to the most recent population estimate of the appropriate metropolitan planning organization; or

(B) boundaries extending into two or more adjacent counties, two of which counties include a principal municipality.

(4) "County of a principal municipality" means the county having a majority of the territory of a principal municipality.

(5) "Executive committee" means the authority directors who serve as the governing body of the authority.

(6) "Light rail mass transit system" means a system that:

(A) uses a fixed guideway rail with electric power propelling mass transit passenger vehicles; and

(B) is constructed by an authority.

(7) "Metropolitan area" means a federal standard metropolitan statistical area having a population of more than 500,000, not more than 60 percent of which resides in municipalities having a population of more than 350,000.

(8) "Principal municipality" means a municipality having a population of at least 350,000.

(9) "Public transportation" means the conveyance of passengers and hand-carried packages or baggage of a passenger by any means of transportation.

(10) "Public transportation system" means:

(A) all property owned or held by an authority for public transportation or complementary transportation service purposes, including vehicle parking areas and facilities and other facilities necessary or convenient for the beneficial use of, and the access of persons and vehicles to, public transportation;

(B) real property, facilities, and equipment for the protection and environmental enhancement of all the facilities; and

(C) property held:

(i) in accordance with a contract with the owner making the property subject to the control of or regulation by the authority; and

(ii) for public transportation or complementary transportation service purposes.

(11) "Service plan" means an outline of the service that would be provided by the authority to those units of election confirmed at an election.

(12) "Subregion" means a principal municipality, the county of the principal municipality, and any municipality or unit of election included in the boundaries of a subregion by the creating entity of that subregion and confirmed at an election.

(13) "Subregional board" means a board created under Subchapter N or O to represent a subregion.

(14) "Unit of election" means:

(A) a principal municipality;

(B) a designated unincorporated area created by the commissioners court of a county of a principal municipality; or

(C) any other municipality located in the territory of an authority.

(15) "Transportation disadvantaged" has the meaning assigned by Section 451.001.

Acts 1995, 74th Leg., ch. 165, Sec. 1, eff. Sept. 1, 1995. Amended by Acts 2001, 77th Leg., ch. 669, Sec. 140, eff. Sept. 1, 2001; Acts 2001, 77th Leg., ch. 1038, Sec. 4, eff. Sept. 1, 2001.