Chapter 161

Section 1. In this chapter, unless the context otherwise requires, the following words shall have the following meanings: ''Board of aldermen'', or ''selectmen'', includes the board or other authority exercising the powers of a board of aldermen or of selectmen, but nothing in th…

Section 10. Upon the issue of such certificate of incorporation, the first meeting of the incorporators shall be called by a notice, signed by a majority of the directors, stating the time, place and purposes of the meeting. A copy of such notice shall, seven days at least before…

Section 100. The department shall require every street railway company to heat its cars, when in use for the transportation of passengers, at such times, by such means, and to such extent, as the department shall determine, and the company shall forfeit twenty-five dollars for ea…

Section 101. Every street car in use for the transportation of passengers in December, January, February and March, which, while in motion, requires the constant care or service of an employee upon its platforms or upon one of them, shall have said platforms enclosed in such mann…

Section 102. A company failing to comply with the preceding section shall be punished by a fine of not more than one hundred dollars for each day during which such failure continues.

Section 103. A day's work for all conductors, guards, drivers, motormen, brakemen, dispatchers and gatemen employed by or on behalf of a street railway or elevated railway company shall not exceed nine hours, and shall be so arranged by the employer that it shall be performed wit…

Section 104. Every company shall furnish reasonable accommodations for the conveyance of passengers, and for every wilful neglect to provide such accommodations shall forfeit not less than five nor more than twenty dollars; and may establish the rates of fare for all passengers a…

Section 105. If the department deems additional accommodations including waiting rooms, stations, water closets and other sanitary conveniences for the traveling public are required upon any street railway, it may, after due notice to the company and a hearing, make an order for …

Section 106. No company shall by rule or otherwise require passengers whom it permits to ride upon the platform to do so at their own risk, and no such passenger shall be prevented from recovering compensation in damages for any injury by reason of the fact that he is so riding.

Section 107. A company may provide cars for special service, and may make special rates therefor; and may make special rates for working men and working women on week days between the hours of five and seven in the morning and five and seven in the evening, for children attending…

Section 108. The rates of fare charged by street or elevated railway companies for the transportation of pupils of the public day schools or public evening schools, of vocational schools subject to chapter seventy-four, or of private schools, between a given point from or to whic…

Section 109. All laws relative to changes and regulation of fares upon railroads shall apply to changes and regulation of fares upon street railways.

Section 11. At such first meeting, or at any adjournment thereof, the incorporators shall organize by the adoption of by-laws, and by the election, by ballot, of not less than five directors. The clerk appointed by the directors under section five shall make and attest a record o…

Section 110. A company shall not withdraw or discontinue the use of any free checks or free transfers from one car or line of cars to another without the approval of the department, but may regulate the use thereof to conform to rates of fare established under authority of sectio…

Section 111. All companies shall furnish the public with full information, by notice posted for seven consecutive days prior to the date when the same are to take effect in the cars on the lines affected, of any intended change in the running of cars, or the discontinuance of any…

Section 112. The department shall forthwith, upon the filing of a petition or schedule for any change in the tariff or rates of any company, give written notice of the proposed change to the mayor or selectmen of all cities and towns where the street railway is operated, or which…

Section 113. Every company shall cause to be printed on the transfer tickets issued by it to passengers the conditions under which such tickets may be used. Whoever uses a transfer ticket in violation of any such condition, or whoever uses or attempts to use a transfer ticket not…

Section 113A. Whoever fraudulently attempts to, or does enter upon or leave any vehicle or station of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority by using a stolen employee or prepaid pass or a counterfeit employee or prepaid pass of said authority shall be punished by a fine …

Section 114. All companies may transport milk and cream over and upon their respective lines of railway and from and to any point thereon, subject only to the supervision of and to such regulations as may be imposed by the department.

Section 115. Any company, except the Boston Elevated Railway Company and the Eastern Massachusetts Street Railway Company, and the successors of either of the said companies, which accepts sections one hundred and fifteen to one hundred and twenty-eight, inclusive, as provided in…

Section 116. The cost of the service shall include operating expenses, taxes, rentals, interest on all indebtedness as hereinafter defined, dividends on preferred stock, an interest return at the rate of six per cent per annum upon the stock investment as determined by the depart…

Section 117. No company may accept sections one hundred and fifteen to one hundred and twenty-eight, inclusive, until it has provided a reserve fund of not less than six, nor more than twelve per cent, of the gross earnings of the preceding year, except as otherwise provided in t…

Section 118. Any company desiring to accept said sections shall, at the time of its application to the department to determine the amount of its stock investment, apply to it to determine the status of its then unfunded debt. The department shall thereupon disallow any amount the…

Section 119. Whenever the income of the company is insufficient to meet the cost of service as defined in section one hundred and sixteen, the reserve fund shall be used, so far as necessary, to make up the deficiency, but when the income exceeds the cost of the service, the exce…

Section 12. The business of every company shall be managed and conducted by a president, a board of not less than five directors, a clerk, a treasurer and such other officers and such agents as the company by its by-laws shall authorize.

Section 120. A company accepting said sections shall file with its acceptance a schedule of nine different grades of fare and of transfer privileges. One such grade it shall designate as the initial grade which it desires to establish and which will, in its opinion, enable it to …

Section 121. If, as of the last day of any March, June, September or December, the reserve fund shall exceed by thirty per cent or more the normal reserve fund, and during the three preceding months the income shall have exceeded the cost of the service, the company shall, within…

Section 122. The company shall provide an improvement fund of an amount required by the department but not exceeding five per cent of the capital investment. Such fund may be raised by the issue of bonds or stock or preferred stock. It shall be fully subscribed within sixty days …

Section 123. Any company accepting said sections shall be bound thereby to sell its entire property and franchises as a going concern to the commonwealth or to any city or town at any time for an amount in cash equal to the stock investment, and the amount of cash paid in for pre…

Section 124. The governor, with the advice and consent of the council, shall appoint for terms of three years each three persons to be members of the board of directors of any company which accepts said sections, of whom at least two shall be residents of a city or town served by…

Section 125. In order that the department may at all times be in a position to take such action as the public interest requires, the companies shall furnish it each month with such statements as it requires, showing the condition of the reserve fund, the income and expenditures o…

Section 126. Any company desiring to accept said sections shall apply to the department to determine the amount of its capital investment and of its stock investment, and upon such determination the company may accept said sections by filing with the department its election so to…

Section 127. The department may order any company accepting said sections to dispose of any property no longer of service to the company. Any loss thereby incurred it may, with the approval of the department, distribute over such period, not exceeding ten years, as the department…

Section 128. If a majority of the state directors of a company believe that a particular order or decision of the department would impair the ability of the company to pay the six per cent interest return on the stock investment as provided in section one hundred and sixteen, the…

Section 129. For the purpose of avoiding or abolishing a crossing of a railroad by the tracks of a street railway company at grade, the company may purchase or take by eminent domain under chapter seventy-nine land necessary therefor, not exceeding fifty feet in width, outside th…

Section 13. The directors shall be elected annually by the stockholders by ballot, and the president shall be elected annually by and from the board of directors, and the treasurer and the clerk annually by said board. Every director, unless the by-laws otherwise provide, shall b…

Section 130. A company, which has acquired land for such purpose, may construct its railway over or under a railroad, in the manner agreed upon by the companies, or, if they do not agree, in the manner prescribed by the department; but no overhead structure shall be built at a he…

Section 131. The board of aldermen of a city or the selectmen of a town, if a public way, and the department of highways, if a state highway, may authorize structures or alterations within, or partly within, the limits thereof, which are necessary for carrying a street railway ov…

Section 132. Upon the application of any company, authorized by a vote of two thirds of the shares present and voting at a meeting called therefor, the department may, after public notice and a hearing, authorize such company to change its name.

Section 133. A certified copy of such authorization and a certificate of the vote of the company, signed and sworn to by the president, treasurer and a majority of the directors, shall be filed in the office of the state secretary. The department shall require public notice to be…

Section 134. A company shall have the same rights, powers and privileges, and be subject to the same duties, obligations and liabilities, under its new name as before its name was changed, and may sue and be sued by its new name; but any action brought against it under its former…

Section 135. A receiver of the property of a company may, by order of the court, sell and transfer the railway and property of such company, its locations and franchises, on such terms and in such manner as the court orders. The purchasers from such receiver, and a company organi…

Section 136. The purchasers at such sale shall, with their associates, to the number of at least fifteen, within sixty days after such sale, organize a company for the purpose of holding, owning and operating the street railway purchased, by filing in the office of the state secr…

Section 137. The state secretary shall receive the agreement of association, and preserve it in form convenient for reference and open to public inspection, and shall issue a certificate of incorporation in the form authorized by section nine. Thereupon, the company shall organiz…

Section 138. The directors of every street railway company shall annually within the time prescribed by section thirty-two of chapter one hundred and fifty-nine transmit to the department a return of the company for the year ending on December thirty-first preceding which shall b…

Section 139. The department shall prepare tables and abstracts of the returns of the several companies, and may include in its annual report such of them as it deems expedient.

Section 14. There shall be an annual meeting of the stockholders, and the time and place of holding it, and the manner of conducting it, shall be fixed by the by-laws. All meetings of stockholders shall be held in the commonwealth, and shall be called, and notice thereof given, i…

Section 140. The lessee of a street railway shall make to the company which owns it the same annual return on oath of the operations and business of the railway as is required of the company which owns it; and, for failure so to do, shall be liable in tort to said company for all…

Section 141. Every state department and commission shall keep a record of its proceedings in any matter considered by it under any laws affecting street railways in which it shall enter every request, made by any party before it, for a ruling of law and of its action upon such re…

Section 142. The supreme judicial or superior court shall have jurisdiction in equity, on petition of a company, or of the board of aldermen of a city or the selectmen of a town where the street railway is located, or of any interested party, to compel the observance and to restr…