PUC

This case concerns the scope of the Public Utilities Commission’s jurisdiction over light rail transit systems operated by a transit district. The Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA), a regional transit district, timely sought a writ of review of two decisions of the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) in which the PUC concluded that it had independent authority to review the transit district’s light rail crossings, pursuant to Public Utilities Code section 99152, which concerns the safety of public transit guideways, and pursuant to Public Utilities Code sections 1201 and 1202, which are more broadly worded grants of power to the PUC over railroad crossings in general. The transit district agreed that the PUC has safety oversight jurisdiction over light rail transit systems, including crossings, under section 99152, but the transit district asserted that the PUC’s exclusive jurisdiction over railroad crossings under sections 1201 and 1202 did not apply to the transit district. We issued a writ of review to decide the limited issue of whether the exclusive railroad crossing jurisdiction conferred on the PUC by the Legislature pursuant to sections 1201 and 1202…