(Formerly Sec. 16-309). Certificate of public convenience and necessity

No person, association, limited liability company or corporation shall operate a motor bus without having obtained a certificate from the Department of Transportation or from the Federal Highway Administration pursuant to the Bus Regulatory Reform Act of 1982, P.L. 97-261, specifying the route and certifying that public convenience and necessity require the operation of a motor bus or motor buses over such route. Such certificate shall be issued only after written application for the same has been made. Upon receipt of such application, said department shall promptly give written notice of the pendency of such application to the mayor of each city, the warden of each borough or the first selectman of each town in or through which the applicant desires to operate, and to any common carrier operating over any portion of such route or over a route substantially parallel thereto. Any town, city or borough within which, or between which and any other town, city or borough in this state, any such common carrier is furnishing service may bring a written petition to the department in respect to routes, fares, speed, schedules, continuity of service and the convenience and safety of passengers and the public. Thereupon the department may fix a time and place for a hearing upon such petition and mail notice thereof to the parties in interest at least one week prior to such hearing. No such certificate shall be sold or transferred until the department, upon written application to it, setting forth the purpose, terms and conditions thereof and after investigation, approves the same. The application shall be accompanied by a fee of one hundred seventy-six dollars. The department may amend or, for sufficient cause shown, may suspend or revoke any such certificate. The department may impose a civil penalty on any person or any officer of any association, limited liability company or corporation who violates any provision of any regulation adopted under section 13b-86 with respect to routes, fares, speed, schedules, continuity of service or the convenience and safety of passengers and the public, in an amount not to exceed one hundred dollars per day for each violation. The owner or operator of every motor bus shall display in a conspicuous place therein a memorandum of such certificate. Notwithstanding any provision of chapter 285, such certificate shall include authority to transport baggage, express, mail and newspapers for hire in the same vehicle with passengers under such regulations as the department may prescribe. Any certificate issued pursuant to this section by the Division of Public Utility Control within the Department of Business Regulation prior to October 1, 1979, shall remain valid unless suspended or revoked by the Department of Transportation.