There are several bills that have been introduced to the legislature in this session (2025-2026) that relate to transit.

• SB 71 (Wiener): California Environmental Quality Act: exemptions: transit projects. This bill would make permanent the exemption from CEQA for transit (bus, rail, ferry) and related projects.
• SB 73 (Cervantes): California Environmental Quality Act: exemptions. This bill would extend some of the transit-related CEQA exemptions to ‘very low vehicle travel area’, basically to agricultural lands for farmworker housing.
• SB 79 (Wiener): Planning and zoning: housing development: transit-oriented development. This bill would require upzoning on parcels near existing or planned transit. It would allow transit agencies to set their own zoning on parcels they own.
• SB 273 (Grayson): Surplus land. This bill reaffirms the commitment to use surplus land near transit for housing.
• SB 358 (Becker): Mitigation Fee Act: mitigating vehicular traffic impacts. This bill would lower mitigation fees for developments that reduce vehicle impacts, without a public hearing.
• SB 359 (Niello): Diesel Fuel Tax Law: exempt bus operation. This bill would extend the exemption from diesel fuel taxes to transit systems owned by counties.
• added – SB-445 (Wiener): Sustainable Transportation Project Permits and Cooperative Agreements. This bill would require the lead agency for a tranit project to notify all relevant agencies and companies of the project, and then require that the agencies respond in a timely manner of 30 days.
• AB 314 (Arambula): California Environmental Quality Act: major transit stop. This bill would add planned or existing high speed rail stations to the definition of ‘major transit stop’.
• AB 394 (Wilson): Crimes: public transportation providers. Though transit systems have gotten safer for riders, they have become less safe for operators and other staff. This bill would increase penalties for battery on transit employees and contractors, and allow for restricting access to transit for people who have committed serious battery or repeated offenses.

There are other bills on specific transit districts. No bills have been introduced that apply specifically to the transit agencies in the Sacramento region.

Bills are usually amended before or after hearings and in the other legislative house. If you are interested in one of these, we recommend that you select ‘Track Bill’ on the individual bill page to follow these changes.

• legislation