2025 · Regular session · House bill
HB3966
HB3966 requires covered commercial passenger bus operators to publish notice at least 90 calendar days before opening a new Texas terminal.
Official caption: Relating to requiring owners or operators of commercial passenger bus services to provide certain notifications to residents concerning operations.
Official report lists House author(s): Morales, Christina, Curry. This does not identify sponsors or amendment drafters.
Bill explanation published · Version and amendment review scope is stated below · Individual amendment records may not be separately annotated.
Bill highlights
Selected points from the published explanation. Follow each point to its source-linked context; conditions and limits may matter.
- HB3966 requires covered commercial passenger bus operators to publish notice at least 90 calendar days before opening a new Texas terminal.
- Notice must appear in a newspaper of general circulation in the municipality where the terminal will be located, or the nearest municipality.
- Temporary new terminals responding to an unforeseen emergency, such as a natural disaster or road closure, are exempt from the section's notice requirement.
What does it do?
HB3966 requires covered commercial passenger bus operators to publish notice at least 90 calendar days before opening a new Texas terminal. It covers paid, regularly scheduled intercity service using buses with at least 35 seats. Public transit provided by or on behalf of local governmental entities is excluded. A terminal means an installation on the service’s premises where the service sells tickets—not every curbside stop or pickup point. Enacted text, section 1
Notice must appear in a newspaper of general circulation in the municipality where the terminal will be located, or the nearest municipality. If the nearest elementary or middle school provides the specified bilingual education program, the operator must also publish notice at least once in an additional general-circulation publication in that municipality or county, in the program’s language. That additional-publication requirement is excused if no qualifying publication exists or its publisher refuses the notice. This refers to the statutory bilingual program, not simply any school teaching a foreign-language class. Notice requirements · Bilingual-program framework
Temporary new terminals responding to an unforeseen emergency, such as a natural disaster or road closure, are exempt from the section’s notice requirement. The act took effect September 1, 2025. It requires notice, not neighborhood permission, a new public hearing or a resident veto over the terminal. Enacted text
What changed along the way?
The introduced bill and House committee report required mailed notice to residents within two miles of a new stop, terminal or other installation. Harrison’s adopted House amendment reduced that distance to one mile; the House-passed and Senate committee versions reflected that change. Introduced · House report · Harrison amendment · House-passed · Senate report
Alvarado’s adopted Senate floor amendment replaced the bill’s operative text. It substituted newspaper/publication notice for individual mail, limited the rule to defined terminals and buses with at least 35 seats, excluded public transit, and added the bilingual-publication and emergency provisions. The House concurred. Neither the one-mile nor two-mile mailed-notice proposal is the final law. The governor signed it June 20, 2025. Alvarado amendment F1 · Both amendments and adoption dates · Official history
For the full amendment record, open the official amendment index.
Official bill versions
Compare the published text versions in the official text index. A change is not attributed to a specific amendment here without a verified record.
Who could benefit—and who could bear the costs?
Nearby communities may gain advance awareness of a new covered terminal, including notice in a relevant additional language. Operators face publication costs and must plan around the 90-day lead time, except for the emergency exemption. Residents are not guaranteed individual delivery or that they will see the publication; the final bill deliberately replaced direct mail.
The final fiscal note anticipated no state fiscal impact and no significant local-government impact. It did not estimate private operators’ publication costs or effects on ticket prices, traffic or property values. Final fiscal note
Review boundary: This explains the state notice rule, not whether a particular stop is legally a terminal, whether an emergency exception applies, or what other local land-use and transportation requirements govern a site.
Official sources
- Bill history and latest recorded action
- Bill versions, analyses and fiscal notes
- Action history and votes
- Amendment index
Catalog report retrieved 2026-10-25. Check the official record for corrections or later changes.
