§ 1204. General powers of the authority. 1. To sue and be sued.

2. To have a seal and alter the same at pleasure.

* 3. To acquire, hold, use and dispose of equipment, devices and
appurtenances, and other property for its corporate purposes, including,
the power to dispose of personal property with a value of five hundred
thousand dollars or less by public auction in accordance with guidelines
adopted by the metropolitan transportation authority pursuant to section
twelve hundred sixty-five of this article and title five-A of article
nine of this chapter.

* NB Effective until June 30, 2028

* 3. To acquire, hold, use and dispose of equipment, devices and
appurtenances, and other property for its corporate purposes.

* NB Effective June 30, 2028

3-a. To acquire by purchase or condemnation pursuant to the provisions
of the condemnation law real property or rights or easements therein
necessary or convenient for the corporate purposes of the authority, and
to use the same so long as its corporate existence shall continue.

3-b. To apply for and receive and accept grants of property, money and
services and other assistance offered or made available to it by any
person, government or agency whatever, which it may use to meet capital
or operating expenses and for any other use within the scope of its
powers, and to negotiate for the same upon such terms and conditions as
the authority may determine to be necessary, convenient or desirable.

4. To make rules and regulations for its organization and internal
management.

5. To appoint officers, assign powers and duties to them, and fix
their compensation.

* 5-a. To make, amend and repeal rules governing the conduct and
safety of the public as it may deem necessary, convenient or desirable
for the use and operation of the transit facilities under its
jurisdiction, including without limitation rules relating to the
protection or maintenance of such facilities, the conduct and safety of
the public, the payment of fares or other lawful charges for the use of
such facilities, the presentation or display of documentation permitting
free passage, reduced fare passage or full fare passage on such
facilities and the protection of the revenue of the authority.
Violations of such rules shall be an offense punishable by a fine of not
exceeding twenty-five dollars or by imprisonment for not longer than ten
days, or both, or may be punishable by the imposition by the transit
adjudication bureau established pursuant to the provisions of this title
of a civil penalty in an amount for each violation not to exceed one
hundred dollars (exclusive of interest or costs assessed thereon), in
accordance with a schedule of such penalties as may from time to time be
established by rules of the authority. Such schedule of penalties may
provide for the imposition of additional penalties, not to exceed a
total of fifty dollars for each violation, upon the failure of a
respondent in any proceeding commenced with respect to any such
violation to make timely response to or appearance in connection with a
notice of violation of such rule or to any subsequent notice or order
issued by the authority in such proceeding. There shall be no penalty or
increment in fine by virtue of a respondent's timely exercise of his
right to a hearing or appeal. The rules may provide, in addition to any
other sanctions, for the confiscation of tokens, tickets, cards or other
fare media that have been forged, counterfeit, improperly altered or
transferred, or otherwise used in a manner inconsistent with such rules.

* NB Effective until January 1, 2025

* 5-a. To make, amend and repeal rules governing the conduct and
safety of the public as it may deem necessary, convenient or desirable
for the use and operation of the transit facilities under its
jurisdiction, including without limitation rules relating to the
protection or maintenance of such facilities, the conduct and safety of
the public, the payment of fares or other lawful charges for the use of
such facilities, the presentation or display of documentation permitting
free passage, reduced fare passage or full fare passage on such
facilities and the protection of the revenue of the authority.
Violations of such rules shall be an offense punishable by a fine of not
exceeding twenty-five dollars or by imprisonment for not longer than ten
days, or both, or may be punishable by the imposition by the transit
adjudication bureau established pursuant to the provisions of this title
of a civil penalty in an amount for each violation not to exceed one
hundred dollars or, in the case of certain repeat violations relating to
the payment of fares in accordance with subdivision eleven of section
twelve hundred nine-a of this title, not to exceed one hundred fifty
dollars (in each case exclusive of supplemental penalties, interest or
costs assessed thereon), in accordance with a schedule of such penalties
as may from time to time be established by rules of the authority. Such
schedule of penalties may provide for the imposition of supplemental
penalties, not to exceed a total of fifty dollars for each violation,
upon the failure of a respondent in any proceeding commenced with
respect to any such violation to make timely response to or appearance
in connection with a notice of violation of such rule or to any
subsequent notice or order issued by the authority in such proceeding.
There shall be no penalty or increment in fine by virtue of a
respondent's timely exercise of their right to a hearing or appeal. The
rules may provide, in addition to any other sanctions, for the
confiscation of tokens, tickets, cards or other fare media that have
been forged, counterfeit, improperly altered or transferred, or
otherwise used in a manner inconsistent with such rules. The authority
shall not use, or arrange for the use, of biometric identifying
technology, including but not limited to facial recognition technology,
to enforce rules relating to the payment of fares.

* NB Effective January 1, 2025

6. To appoint employees and fix their compensation subject to the
provisions of the civil service law and to grant, in its discretion,
cash payments to the surviving spouse or to the legal representatives of
its deceased employees, equal to the current monetary value of
accumulated and unused vacation time, if any, and the monetary value of
accumulated and unused overtime, if any, for overtime which was worked
and credited subsequent to June fifteenth, nineteen hundred fifty-three,
computed at the rate of salary in effect at the time the overtime was
worked, standing to the credit of its employees as of the time of their
death and, notwithstanding the provisions of section one hundred
thirty-five of the civil service law or any other state or local law to
the contrary, to grant, in its discretion, severance pay to surplus
employees on separation from service.

7. To retain and employ counsel, auditors, engineers and private
consultants on a contract basis or otherwise for rendering professional
or technical services and advice.

8. Pursuant to the provisions of this title, to construct,
reconstruct, improve, maintain and operate any transit facility, whether
now existing, or constructed, acquired or provided in the future, and to
fix fares on any such transit facilities.

9. To construct, reconstruct, improve, maintain and operate buildings,
structures and facilities as may be necessary or convenient and to
maintain and operate, directly or enter into contracts or leases for the
acquisition, maintenance, and operation of areas for the parking of
motor vehicles in the vicinity of its transit facilities, and in its
discretion to fix and charge for such parking a combination fee which
shall include the established rate of fare for use of its transit
facilities.

9-a. To post signs notifying the public of the maximum fine for
throwing, dumping, or causing to be thrown, dumped, deposited or placed
any refuse, trash, garbage, rubbish, litter, or any nauseous or
offensive matter on subway tracks or the right-of-way of a subway,
pursuant to section fifty-two-e of the railroad law, to the extent that
funds for such signs are available.

10. With the consent of the city to use officers, employees, agents
and facilities of the city paying to the city an agreed proportion or
amount of the compensation or costs involved.

11. To make or enter into contracts, agreements, deeds, leases,
conveyances or other instruments necessary or convenient, and to assist
and cooperate with the metropolitan transportation authority to carry
out the powers of the metropolitan transportation authority in
furtherance of the purposes and powers of the authority as provided in
this article, including, without limitation, the transactions described
in sections twelve hundred sixty-six-c, twelve hundred sixty-nine and
twelve hundred seventy-d of this article. This power shall include the
power to make contracts with other persons operating transit facilities
for combined fares for the use of such facilities and the transit
facilities operated by the authority and for the division of such fares,
and the power to make contracts for the transportation of the United
States mail or personal property.

12. To surrender to the city property no longer required by the
authority.

13. To rent space and grant concessions on or in any transit or other
facility under its jurisdiction, to fix and collect rentals, fees or
other charges therefor, and to contract for the sale or disposition of
waste, products or by-products incidental to its operations or in excess
of its requirements.

13-a. Notwithstanding the provisions of section fourteen hundred
twenty-three of the penal law or the provisions of any general, special
or local law, code, ordinance, rule or regulation to the contrary the
authority may erect signs or other printed, painted or advertising
matter on any property, including elevated structures, leased or
operated by it or otherwise under its jurisdiction and control and may
rent, lease or otherwise sell the right to do so to any person, private
or public.

14. To make plans, surveys and studies of transit facilities in the
city and prepare recommendations in regard thereto.

15. To exercise all requisite and necessary authority to manage,
control and direct the maintenance and operation of transit facilities
transferred to it for the convenience and safety of the public with
power, in its discretion, to extend, modify, discontinue, curtail, or
change routes or methods of transportation where the convenience and
safety of the public would be served thereby or where existing routes or
methods are inefficient or uneconomical; provided, however, that (except
in cases of emergencies) at least thirty days prior to any proposed
modification, discontinuance, curtailment or change of any transit route
or method of transportation, the authority shall give notice of its
intention to the board of estimate and shall, upon request of such board
within such period, conduct a public hearing thereon.

16. In its discretion to provide and maintain a transit police
department and a uniformed transit police force. Such department and
force shall have the power and it shall be their duty, in and about
transit facilities, to preserve the public peace, prevent crime, detect
and arrest offenders, suppress riots, mobs and insurrections, disperse
unlawful or dangerous assemblages and assemblages which obstruct free
passage; protect the rights of persons and property; guard the public
health; regulate, direct, control and restrict pedestrian traffic;
remove all nuisances; enforce and prevent violation of all laws and
ordinances; and for these purposes to arrest all persons guilty of
violating any law or ordinance. Appointments to such transit police
force shall be made in accordance with applicable provisions of the
civil service law and only persons who shall be less than twenty-nine
years of age at the date of the filing of an application for civil
service examination, who have never been convicted of a felony, and who
are citizens of the United States shall be appointed transit patrolmen
on the transit police force. Each member of such force shall be a police
officer as defined by paragraph (e) of subdivision thirty-four of
section 1.20 of the criminal procedure law and shall possess all the
powers of a police officer of a city in the execution of criminal
process; and criminal process issued by any court or magistrate of a
city may be directed to and executed by a member of such force,
notwithstanding the provisions of any local or special act, ordinance or
regulation.

The authority may appoint a chief and a deputy chief of the transit
police department who, in the discretion of the authority, may be
selected from the ranks of the transit police force, and assign powers
and duties to them and fix their compensation. The chief shall be the
head of such department. During the absence or disability of the chief,
the deputy chief shall possess all the powers and perform all the duties
of the chief. The transit police force shall consist of captains,
lieutenants, sergeants and police officers. The authority may detail
persons in the rank of captain of the transit police force to serve in
higher ranks. A captain when so detailed to serve in a higher rank may
be granted an increase in salary above the grade established for the
rank of captain in the uniformed force. The authority may maintain a
division for detective purposes to be known as the detective division
and may, from time to time, detail to service in said division as many
members of the force as it may deem necessary, and may at any time
revoke any such detail. Any member of the force while so detailed may be
granted an increase in salary above the grade established for his or her
rank in the uniformed force, but shall retain his or her rank in the
force and shall be eligible for promotion the same as if serving in the
uniformed force, and the time during which he or she serves in such
division shall count for all purposes as if served in his or her rank or
grade in the uniformed force.

16-a. The authority shall establish and publish or cause to be
published schedules for all passenger transportation services under its
operation. Such schedules shall include the estimated departure and
arrival time at each terminal point of each route except that, on lines
where the headway time during the period between six A.M. and seven P.M.
is less than ten minutes, such headway time alone may be listed for that
period. Such schedules shall also show the elapsed running time between
the terminal and each station. Schedules shall be made available at each
facility on the applicable route at which tokens or tickets are sold and
shall be posted at each appropriate station operated by the authority.

17. To do all things necessary or convenient to carry out its purposes
and for the exercise of the powers granted in this title.

18. A copy of any report submitted by the authority pursuant to
sections twenty-eight hundred, twenty-eight hundred one and twenty-eight
hundred two of this chapter shall be submitted contemporaneously to the
mayor.

19. To invest any funds, accounts or other monies not required for
immediate use or disbursement, at the discretion of the authority, in
any of the investments in which the metropolitan transportation
authority is permitted to invest its monies pursuant to subdivision four
of section twelve hundred sixty-five of this article.