Title 23, Title 23

Railroads may cross any public highways in the line of the railroad, but may not pass along public highways without the written consent of the officials charged by statute with the duty of maintenance of these ways; but when a railroad is hereafter laid out across a public way, i…

Highways and other ways may be raised or lowered, or the course of the highways may be altered, to facilitate a crossing or to permit a railroad to pass over or under the highway or at the side of it, on application to the Department of Transportation, and proceedings as provided…

Any railroad corporation or the municipal officers of a city or town in which a public way crosses or is crossed by a railroad, whether at grade or otherwise, may file a petition in writing with the Department of Transportation alleging that the crossing is no longer required by …

When the corporation unnecessarily neglects to perform the acts so required, those injured may recover damages in a civil action, commenced within one year after performance is required.

A railroad may be carried over or under a canal or railroad in a manner as not unnecessarily to impede the travel or transportation on them. The corporation making the crossing is liable for damages, occasioned by making the crossing, in a civil action. Bridges and their abutment…

A railroad company may, for the purpose of accommodating lumbering operations and for the transportation in ordinary vehicles of wood, coal, ice, hay or other commodities, establish and maintain temporary crossings of any railroad operated by it, by agreement with any person who …

At every temporary crossing, established in accordance with section 7210, boards with the words "Temporary railroad crossing, stop, look, listen" distinctly painted on each side, in letters plainly legible, shall be placed on each side line of the railroad right-of-way at the cro…

No team or vehicle may be driven over any temporary crossing unless the team or vehicle is first stopped within a reasonable distance from the nearest rail of the crossing, and the operator, by looking and listening, determines that nothing is approaching on the tracks of the rai…

Each temporary crossing shall be kept open only during the time each year as the parties interested in the crossing may agree on, or as the Department of Transportation may specify in cases where the department directs the crossings to be established. When the department directs …

Every railroad corporation shall cause signboards with the words "Railroad Crossing" distinctly painted on each side of the signboards, or as a minimum on one side if signboards are placed facing on-coming traffic in each direction, in letters plainly legible, to be placed and co…

For unnecessarily neglecting to comply with any provision of section 7214, the corporation forfeits not more than $500. The corporation is liable for damages for its neglect to comply with these provisions, or for the neglect of any agent or for the mismanagement of an engine, to…

The officers, agents and employees of the Department of Transportation may enter in and on property of any railroad corporation for the purpose of inspecting railroad-highway crossings and attendant facilities, including grade separation facilities.

Sections 1251, 1254, 7202, 7205, 7206 and 7214, so far as applicable, apply to plant railroads. The term "plant railroad" means a railroad of the owners of any mills, mines, quarries, gravel pits, log landings or yards, warehouses, storehouses, stock yards, bulk storage yards, ai…

Bridges erected by any municipality, over which any railroad passes, shall be constructed and maintained in a manner and condition as to safety as the Department of Transportation may determine. The department may require the officers of the railroad company and of the municipali…

The department shall make a report in writing of its decision in all matters named in section 7218, file the report in the department's office, and cause a copy of the decision to be sent by mail to each of the railroad corporations and to the municipal officers of the cities or …

The department is authorized to fix a maximum speed limit at which trains may be run over any grade crossing of a highway or other way and, when the limit has been fixed by the department, no engine or train may be run over the crossings at a greater speed than that fixed by the …

The department may require each railroad company operating within this State to install, operate and maintain an automatic signal, gates or other protective device or to require a flagger to be stationed at any highway crossing within this State where, after reasonable notice and…

The Department of Transportation shall designate by general orders, which may be issued without formal notice or hearing, the grade crossings in this State at which, from all points on the highway or other way within 300 feet of these crossings, and on either side of the crossing…

At every crossing of a highway or other way, except state and state aid highways and a railroad at grade, the municipal officers of the town or unorganized place in which the crossing is located are authorized and required on order of the Department of Transportation to remove em…

Within a time as the Department of Transportation by order directs, the municipal officers or county commissioners shall cause the bushes to be cut down and removed, or chemically treated, and shall cause the trees, fences, signboards or other encroachments to be trimmed, cut dow…

If any person claims damages on account of any such act done under sections 7223 and 7224, the person may, within 2 years after the doing of any act, petition the Department of Transportation to assess damages and the department, after reasonable notice to the petitioner and to t…

Nothing contained in sections 7222 to 7225 authorizes the removal of any building without the consent of the owner.

Except where otherwise expressly specified, sections 7221 to 7226 and section 7228 apply to all railroads operated by steam, electric, diesel-electric, diesel-motor, gasoline-electric or gasoline-motor power and engaged in the transportation of freight or passengers in standard r…

For the purpose of creating and maintaining the fair view mentioned in sections 7221 to 7227 or for the purpose of improving the view at one or more angles, any steam railroad company subject to this chapter may enter on private property and remove any embankment or other obstruc…

In a municipality in which a private way is crossed by a railroad crossing, the municipal officers may act as agents for a railroad corporation in collecting maintenance and insurance charges from those persons using that crossing. Nothing in this section may authorize a municipa…

The State, by or through the Department of Transportation, may reimburse railroad corporations for up to 50% of their annual cost of maintaining public at-grade railroad crossings and crossing protection devices. These crossing protection devices shall include signals, gates, cro…

The municipal officers in instances of town ways crossing or crossed by a railroad, whether the crossing be at grade or otherwise, or any railroad corporation may petition the Department of Transportation alleging that public safety or public convenience either to the traveling p…

Whenever the Department of Transportation, on an application or petition brought under section 7231, finds that a public way crosses or is crossed by tracks of more than one railroad and the tracks of the railroads are so near together that public safety or convenience requires t…

The order of the Department of Transportation relating to any matter on which the department may act under the authority of sections 7231 and 7232 shall be communicated in writing to the petitioners and to all persons to whom notice of the hearing on the petition was given. Any p…

Whenever the Department of Transportation deems that trees, bushes or other encroachments within the limits of a public way obstruct the view at railroad crossings or where one public way enters another and thereby renders the way dangerous to travelers, it shall cause the remova…