STATEMENT TO
SENATE, No. 4071
with Assembly Floor Amendments
(Proposed by Assemblyman BENSON)
ADOPTED: DECEMBER 20, 2021
These floor amendments expand application of the bill to all motorbus service employees and not only operators and their supervisors. The amendments clarify that light rail service is included in the term rail passenger service. The amendments specify that the New Jersey Transit Corporation (NJ Transit) and motorbus companies may provide a radio or other communication system to alert authorities when in distress. The amendments allow NJ Transit to utilize an employee court advocate to assist employees that have been assaulted and require autobus companies to identify a program to assist employees that have been assaulted. The amendments replace the phrase “the owner or operator of an autobus” with the term “autobus company,” which is then defined in the amendments. The amendments require autobus companies to designate a chief security officer to serve as the primary contact for police departments where they provide service and to remove language requiring an autobus company to coordinate to allow law enforcement officers or transit police to ride along on an autobus in certain situations. The amendments also clarify that the appeals process, when a person is prohibited from accessing transportation service, is to be conducted in a manner established by the appropriate entity.
The amendments remove language in section 2 of the bill concerning operators under contract with NJ Transit but include additional language in section 5 of the bill clarifying that private operators, who may be under contract with NJ Transit, remain covered under the bill. The amendments also add language requiring NJ Transit to make available its assistance and support program plans and de-escalation training to other transportation operators in the State.
The amendments change the effective date to the first day of the sixth month following enactment and make a grammatical change to the bill’s synopsis.