(1) The term “authority” shall mean any body, politic and corporate, created by this act.

(2) The term “port district” shall mean all the territory within a second class county.

(3) The term “member” shall mean a member of the governing body of an authority.

(4) The term “board” shall mean the governing body of an authority.

(5) The term “bonds” shall mean and include the notes, bonds, refunding bonds, and other evidences of indebtedness or obligations which the authority is authorized to issue, pursuant to section five of this act.¹

(6) The term “construction” shall mean and include acquisition and construction, and the term “to construct” shall mean and include to acquire and to construct all in such manner as may be deemed desirable.

(7) The term “municipality” shall mean any county, city, town, borough or township of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, or any authority organized under any law of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

(8) The term “Federal agency” shall mean and include the United States of America, the President of the United States and any department or corporation, agency or instrumentality, heretofore or hereafter created, designated or established by the United States of America.

(9) The term “improvement” shall mean and include extension, enlargement and improvement, and the term “to improve” shall mean and include to extend, to enlarge and to improve all in such manner as shall be deemed desirable.

(10) The term “persons” shall mean and include natural persons.

(11) The term “port terminal” shall include any marine, motor truck, railroad and air terminal, also any coal, grain, bulk liquids and lumber terminal and any union, freight and other terminals, used or to be used, in connection with the transportation or transfer of freight and equipment, materials and supplies.

(12) The term “port facility” shall include all real and personal property used in the operation of a port terminal, including, but without being limited to, wharves, piers, slips, ferries, docks, drydocks, ship repair yards, bulkheads, dock walls, basins, carfloats, float-bridges, dredging equipment, radio receiving and sending stations, grain or other storage elevators, warehouses, cold storage, tracks, yards, sheds, switches, connections, overhead appliances, bunker coal, oil and fresh water stations, railroads, motor trucks, floating elevators, airports, barges, scows or harbor craft of any kind, markets and every kind of terminal storage or supply depot, now in use or hereafter designed for use, to facilitate transportation and for the handling, storage, loading or unloading of freight at terminals, and equipment, materials and supplies therefor.

(13) The term “transportation system” shall mean all property, real and personal, useful for the transportation of passengers for hire, including but not limited to power plants, substations, terminals, garages, bridges, tunnels, subways, monorails, railroad motive power, trains, railroad passenger cars, and equipment, belt conveyors, inclines, car barns, street cars, buses, rails, lines, poles, wires, off-street parking facilities, as well as the franchises, rights and licenses therefor, including, but not limited to, the right to provide, directly or through contract, transportation or transportation services for any elderly, handicapped or Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)-eligible persons or group and party services: Provided, That such term shall not include taxicabs or bus companies, the main purpose of which is the transportation of children to and from school.

(14) The term “facility” shall mean port facility and transportation system.

(15) The term “local authorities” shall mean the officers of a municipality, elected or appointed, authorized to consent to the use of the municipality's streets, highways, bridges and tunnels and to enter into agreements relative to such use with the port authority.

(16) The term “Public Utility Commission” shall mean the Public Utility Commission of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, created by the act of March 31, 1937 (P.L. 160).²

(17) The term “service area” shall mean the entire county incorporating the authority and those portions of adjacent counties necessary to permit the authority (i) to acquire a transportation system, at a price and in a manner deemed reasonable by an authority; (ii) to acquire by purchase only and not by exercise of the right of eminent domain other existing transportation systems or parts thereof which, in the authority's sole discretion, are required for the establishment of a system; (iii) to establish transit service between points in the county incorporating the authority and points in the adjacent counties where no such service is at the time being rendered and which service the authority, in its sole discretion, has determined to be required: Provided, however, That no such service shall be established without the consent of the affected adjacent county nor without participation of such county in the payment of the cost of establishing and maintaining such service; and (iv) to establish rapid transit facilities over jointly used or exclusive fixed rights of way.

(18) The term “common carrier” shall have the same meaning as given to it in 66 Pa.C.S. § 102 (relating to definitions).