Title 77, Public Utilities and Carriers

(1) There is created within the Department of Transportation the Operation Lifesaver Program. The purpose of the program is to increase safety of and prevent loss of life and property at railroad crossings by increasing compliance, on the part of the railroads and the public, wit…

Where a railroad is constructed so as to cross a highway, and it be necessary to raise or lower the highway, it shall be the duty of the railroad company to make proper and easy grades in the highway, so that the railroad may be conveniently crossed, and to keep such crossings in…

(1) Any developer, corporation, individual or other private entity requesting or applying for a new public railroad grade crossing shall be responsible for all costs for installing appropriate warning devices, for installing appropriate crossing surfaces and approaches, for estab…

(1) It is the duty of every railroad company to construct and maintain all necessary or proper stock gaps and cattle guards where its track passes through enclosed land, and to make and maintain convenient and suitable crossings over its track for necessary plantation roads. Howe…

(1) At all public highway railroad grade crossings that do not have automatic flashing lights and/or gates where vegetation would materially obstruct the view of a vehicle operator exercising reasonable care of a train approaching a grade crossing from either direction, every rai…

The Mississippi Transportation Commission shall have every railroad inspected whenever it shall deem the same necessary, but at least once in each year. The results must be entered upon the minutes of the commission and embraced in its reports, and must embrace information as to …

If any officer or other employee of a railroad company shall fail to submit to the inspection of its engines or cars, or any trestle, bridge, roadbed, tracks, or any other equipment or facility owned or used by said railroad company, then such person shall be guilty of a misdemea…

A person who has chartered a car for the purpose of transporting livestock shall have the right to ship in the same car, at his own risk, different kinds of livestock. The shipper shall have the right to load said car by separating his stock with gates or bars, or by putting uppe…

A party injured may recover of a railroad corporation or the person managing a railroad who is guilty of extortion as defined in Section 77-9-371, twice the amount of damages sustained by the overcharge or discrimination, as the case may be.

Each railroad shall report accidents to the Mississippi Department of Transportation in the same manner, and utilizing forms which provide the same information, as required for accident reports by the Federal Railroad Act. The same damage thresholds prerequisite to reports under …

Every railroad company shall be liable for all damages which may be sustained by any person in consequence of the neglect or mismanagement of any of its agents, engineers or clerks, or in consequence of the mismanagement of its engines.

The inspectors, employed pursuant to the authority granted in Section 65-1-173, shall be responsible for enforcing and investigating all violations of the railroad laws, and the rules, regulations and general orders of the Mississippi Transportation Commission promulgated thereun…

After selection the inspectors shall go through thirty (30) days of intensive instruction of the laws of this state pertaining to the State Tax Commission, the Department of Public Safety, and the State Mississippi Department of Transportation, together with rules and regulations…

All inspectors on duty shall wear uniforms as prescribed by the Mississippi Transportation Commission, shall have the right to bear arms, and shall have authority to make arrests, and to stop and hold any train and the contents thereof which is being operated in violation of the …

The Mississippi Transportation Commission is hereby authorized and empowered to purchase all necessary equipment to enforce the provisions of the railroad laws of the State of Mississippi and to pay for the same out of the “Mississippi Transportation Commission Regulation Fund.”

The salaries of all employees authorized to enforce the provisions of the railroad laws, and the reasonable and necessary expenses of such employees, shall be paid out of the special fund in the State Treasury designated as the commission’s regulation fund upon the requisition an…

For the purpose of administering and enforcing the provisions of the railroad laws, the public service commission shall have the power, and is directed to cooperate with and use the services of the members of the highway safety patrol and the inspectors employed by the motor vehi…

All reasonable and necessary operating expenses of the administration of the duties imposed by law upon the Mississippi Transportation Commission, including the salaries of personnel, in its regulation and supervision of railroad companies operating within the State of Mississipp…

Sections 77-9-501 through 77-9-517 shall be cited as “The Mississippi Railroad Police Law of 1976.”

(a) For purposes of Sections 77-9-501 through 77-9-517, unless the context requires otherwise, the following terms shall have the meanings ascribed herein:(a) “Railroad” means a common carrier by railroad.(b) “Qualified person” means a person who:(i) has met all the educational a…

(1) Upon request by the chief police officer of any railroad located wholly or partially within this state, the Commissioner of Public Safety may appoint and commission as a railroad police officer any qualified person named by such chief police officer; provided, however, that t…

A person arrested by a railroad police officer shall be forthwith taken to the sheriff of the county in which the offense was committed. Such person arrested shall then be handled or processed and accorded the same treatment as persons arrested by any other police officer of this…

The railroad by the act of requesting the appointment of any such railroad police officer shall be liable and responsible for all acts of such policeman while he is acting or purporting to act under the provisions of Sections 77-9-501 through 77-9-517 whether such action be autho…

The governor of this state may enter into agreement with the governor of any other state empowering qualified persons, as defined in Section 77-9-503(b), who are railroad police officers appointed and commissioned in either state, to exercise their powers and authority as defined…

Each railroad policeman commissioned under Sections 77-9-501 through 77-9-517 shall pay to the commissioner of public safety a fee of twenty dollars ($20.00) for the issuance of such commission, and shall file a bond in the sum of fifty thousand dollars ($50,000.00) with the comm…

The powers and authority of any railroad police officer, whether appointed or commissioned pursuant to the provisions of Sections 77-9-501 through 77-9-517 or any former law of this state may be terminated at any time by the commissioner of public safety.

Nothing contained herein shall be construed to waive the sovereign immunity of the State of Mississippi in whole or in part.

(1) A rail carrier making application to the Surface Transportation Board for certificate of abandonment or discontinuance shall provide to the Governor, in addition to the notice of intent to abandon or discontinue provided for in the Interstate Commerce Act (Subtitle IV to Titl…

Each member of the Legislature representing a legislative district within which the proposed railroad abandonment or discontinuance is planned shall recommend to his respective House Transportation Committee or Senate Highways and Transportation Committee chairman, after reviewin…

A public hearing, in the discretion of the Senate Highway and Transportation Committee and the House Transportation Committee chairmen, may be held by the chairmen and three (3) appointed members of the committees meeting concurrently to receive testimony within twenty (20) days …

(1) If a rail carrier files a notice of intent to abandon or discontinue as provided for in the Interstate Commerce Act, the Mississippi Transportation Commission shall have the power to acquire the railroad that is proposed to be abandoned or discontinued. The Mississippi Transp…

The Governor, on behalf of this state, is hereby authorized and directed to execute a compact, in substantially the following form, with the State of Alabama; and the Legislature hereby signifies in advance its approval and ratification of such compact, which compact is as follow…

It shall be unlawful for any person or persons, whether residents or non-residents of this state, or any partnership, association or society of persons, resident or non-resident in this state, except express companies duly chartered as such by the laws of this state or some other…

If any person, partnership, association or society of persons or any agent or representative of such person, partnership, association or society shall, in violation of Section 77-9-601, engage in such business within this state, or shall receive for transportation by express or t…

Every express company shall establish and maintain offices for the transaction of business with the public in its capacity as a common carrier, at each city, town, and village convenient to its routes, if, in the opinion of the commission, the public convenience and necessity req…

If any express company, through any agent or employee, shall demand and receive of a consignee any charge or part of a charge which had been prepaid, or a greater sum than the company had agreed to perform the services for, or more than reasonable compensation for any service ren…

Every telegraph company shall establish and maintain offices for the transaction of business with the public in its capacity as a common carrier, at each city, town, and village convenient to its routes, if, in the opinion of the public service commission, the public convenience …

A telegraph or telephone company shall transmit all written messages between points where it may have offices within the state. If the telegraph or telephone company shall receive any message or matter at one of its offices in this state for transmission to a person addressed at …

A telegraph or telephone company shall deliver all messages addressed to a person residing or having a place of business in any city, town, or village where it may have an office, or within one mile of its office. If any telegraph or telephone company shall receive any message or…

In any suit against a telegraph company for nondelivery or failure to promptly deliver any telegram in this state, the copy of the telegram received and transcribed by such company’s operator at the office of final destination shall be conclusive evidence in the hands of the bona…

Telegraph or telephone companies or associations shall be bound, on application of any officer of this state, or of the United States, in case of any war, insurrection, riot, or other civil commotion or resistance of public authority, or for the prevention and punishment of crime…

All companies or associations of persons incorporated or organized for the purpose of constructing telegraph or telephone lines shall be authorized to construct the same, and to set up and erect their posts and fixtures along and across any of the public highways, streets, or wat…

The board of supervisors of any county, and the governing authorities of any city, town or village, through which any telegraph or telephone line may pass, shall have power to regulate, within their respective limits, the manner in which the same shall be constructed and maintain…

Telegraph and telephone companies or associations shall be responsible for any damages which any person shall sustain by the erection, continuance, and use of telegraph and telephone lines and the fixtures thereof. In any action for the recovery thereof brought by any owner or po…

Telegraph and telephone companies, for the purpose of constructing new lines, are empowered to exercise the right of eminent domain, as provided in Chapter 27 of Title 11, Mississippi Code of 1972.

All telephone lines, exchanges and properties in any county of the State of Mississippi may be consolidated and merged so as to create and establish a telephone system in such county and to enable all patrons of such telephone properties to secure telephonic service over and thro…