Title 39, Title 39 Utilities and Carriers

Every stockholder of any railroad corporation incorporated within this state may, at all reasonable times, examine the books, papers, and accounts of the corporation in which he or she is a stockholder; and if any clerk or other officer of any railroad corporation having the cust…

No railroad corporation shall enter upon or use the land or materials located for the use of its railroad, except for the purpose of making surveys, until the corporation shall have given such security for the payment of all damages as shall be finally awarded for the land or mat…

Any railroad corporation chartered by the general assembly of this state may, at any time before final court confirmation of the report of the commissioners appointed by any court, under the provisions of its charter and of law, to estimate all damages that any person shall susta…

Any and all lands, materials, and their appurtenances, covered by an abandoned location, that may have been taken or used and not paid for by the railroad company before abandonment, shall immediately, on the report thereof to such court as provided in § 39-6-7, revert to, and th…

No length of possession, user, or occupancy of land belonging to a railroad corporation by an owner or occupier of adjoining land shall hereafter create any right in or to the land of the corporation in an adjoining owner or occupant or in any person claiming under him or her.

No bridges, viaducts, or other obstructions shall be constructed, insofar as practicable, over tracks in a railroad yard over which switching movements will be made at not less than twenty-three feet (23′) in the clear, and over any other railroad tracks at not less than twenty-t…

The Providence and Worcester railroad company and its lessees, the New York, New Haven and Hartford railroad company, are hereby forbidden to blow or cause to be blown or permit any of its employees to blow any locomotive signal whistles along its tracks, between the Hamlet Stati…

(a) In order to provide railroad employees a reasonably safe place to work, it shall be the duty of all persons, firms, or corporations engaged in the operation of railroads in this state to keep and maintain those margins alongside their yard tracks, except designated clean out …

Every railroad corporation or railroad company operating a railroad within this state shall on and after September 1, 1993, maintain and construct a handrail and catwalk on each railroad bridge and/or trestle that is constructed or renovated for use by the railroad. The handrail …

Every railroad corporation, operating a railroad or part of a railroad in this state, shall adjust, fill, or block the frogs, switches, and guardrails on its track, with the exception of guardrails on bridges, so as to prevent the feet of its employees from being caught therein. …

Every railroad corporation whose cars are propelled by steam shall cause a power brake to be attached to every passenger car used for conveyance of passengers, which brake shall be so arranged that it may be put in operation by the engineer when the train is in motion. Every rail…

No car or carriage for the transportation of passengers over any railroad shall be propelled on the railroad when placed between the locomotive and cars loaded with dirt or stone. Every railroad corporation upon whose railroad shall be propelled cars or carriages for the transpor…

No passenger car on any railroad shall be lighted by naphtha or by any illuminating oil or fluid made in part of naphtha, or wholly or in part from coal or petroleum, or other substance or material which will ignite at a temperature of less than three hundred degrees (300 degrees…

No passenger, mail, or baggage car, on any railroad in this state, shall be heated by any method of heating by furnace or heater, unless the furnace or heater shall first have been approved in writing by the division of public utilities and carriers; provided, however, that in no…

Every railroad corporation shall carry on each passenger car operated by steam a sufficient quantity of good water, with suitable vessels for using the water, and every railroad corporation refusing or neglecting to comply with the requirements of this section shall be fined twen…

If any person behaves in a disorderly manner, or refuses to pay the regular fare, or rides upon the platform of a car after having been told by the conductor or trainperson to go inside the car, the train may be stopped and he or she may be ejected at any regular station on the r…

(a) Every person driving a locomotive, when approaching any crossing or junction of any two (2) railroads where the rails of one cross or connect with the rails of the other at grade, or when approaching any drawbridge now in use as such, shall stop the locomotive at some point w…

Every railroad corporation whose roadbed crosses the public highway at grade shall cause the crossing to be covered with suitable material for highway travel so that the surface of the highway at the crossing shall not at any time be lower than three-fourths (¾) of one inch (1") …

In the exercise of the police power of the state for the safety of its inhabitants, the general assembly vests in the commission the authority and power to determine the point at which and the manner in which any grade crossing of a railroad and a street shall be constructed and …

As used in this title: (1) “Private crossings” shall mean and refer to those crossings over railroad tracks at grade that have been established by written agreement between the railroad, the tracks of which are being crossed, and the party or parties who are given exclusive right…

No railroad owning railroad tracks within the state shall enter into any agreement of any nature whatsoever with any private party for the establishment of a private crossing at grade, unless and until the railroad shall have obtained permission from the commission for the establ…

The general assembly hereby declares that any private railroad crossing found by the commission after a hearing to be dangerous or a hazard to the public or to those using trains is a public nuisance, and the commission may order the railroad to barricade the crossing as a matter…

Every railroad corporation that shall refuse or neglect to comply with an order, or with a confirmation of such order upon appeal, shall, for every day’s neglect after seven (7) days from the date of the service of the order upon the president, treasurer, or any director of the c…

At any point where a highway, city or town way, or traveled place is crossed at the same level by a railroad where a gate or flagperson is not maintained, the commission may, after notice to and hearing of the railroad corporation whose road so crosses, direct that the crossing s…

Every railroad corporation whose railroad crosses any street or highway at grade in the city of Providence shall erect, maintain, and cause to be operated gates across every street or highway satisfactory in all respects to the city council upon receiving notice from the city cou…

Every railroad corporation shall cause to be erected and to be maintained at every turnpike, highway, or public way, where it is crossed by the railroad upon the same level therewith, a suitable sign board upon each side of the crossing; and on each side of the sign boards shall …

Every railroad corporation shall cause a bell of at least thirty-two pounds (32 lbs.) in weight to be placed on each locomotive engine passing upon its road, and the bell shall be rung at a distance of at least eighty (80) rods from the place where the railroad crosses any turnpi…

Every railroad corporation that shall neglect or refuse to comply with the provisions of §§ 39-8-13 and 39-8-14 shall be fined not exceeding one thousand dollars ($1,000); and the corporation shall be liable for all damages sustained by any person by reason of neglect or refusal …

Whoever enters upon or crosses a railroad at any private way that is closed by gates or bars and neglects to close them securely, shall be fined not less than two dollars ($2.00) nor more than ten dollars ($10.00) and shall be liable for the damage sustained therefrom.

Whenever a person employed as an engineer, fireperson, conductor, brake person, flagperson, or other crew member, is arrested in any city or town on a criminal charge arising from an accident in connection with the operation of a train, resulting in an injury or death to a person…

Every railroad corporation or company shall erect and thereafter maintain a fence or fences along the boundary lines of its rights of way that are actually used for rail transportation of any kind whenever the public utilities commission shall determine it to be necessary for the…

If the city or town council of any city or town where a turnpike or highway crossed by a railroad on a level therewith is situated, is of the opinion that it is necessary for the security of the public that the turnpike or highway should be raised or lowered, so as to pass over o…

No railroad corporation shall lay out or build its road or lay its tracks across any railroad, street, highway, turnpike, or traveled way at grade, and no street, highway, turnpike, or road shall be laid out or built across any railroad track at grade, except by the consent of th…

No railroad corporation, nor its servants or agents, shall willfully or negligently obstruct or unnecessarily use or occupy a highway, city or town way, or street, nor in any case at a street or highway grade crossing, with cars or engines for more than five (5) minutes at one ti…

(a)(1) A railroad corporation shall maintain and keep clear of debris in any railroad yard under its supervision or control that is used for storing railroad cars or locomotives, a distance of nine feet (9′) on either side of the center line of any track in any yard. Additionally…

All railroads upon any street or highway in any town or city in this state shall be laid out, constructed, used, and continued therein under the terms and conditions named in §§ 39-8-6 — 39-8-8.

All railroads in this state crossing any other railroad at grade shall be operated at the crossing subject to, and in accordance with, such reasonable rules and regulations as the division of public utilities and carriers shall from time to time prescribe.

The town and city councils of the several towns and cities shall have power, from time to time, to make reasonable rules and regulations with reference to the rate of speed and mode of operation of railroads in the streets and highways of the respective towns and cities; the rule…

Every corporation that maintains or uses railroad tracks in any street or highway in any town or city in this state, shall be liable to keep and maintain in good order and repair, including paving and repaving whenever and wherever necessary, that portion of any street or highway…

Every railroad corporation or lessees, receivers, or trustees of the corporation operating railroads within this state shall cause flagpersons or gates or other precautionary measures or appliances to be established or substituted wherever the railroads cross public highways, whe…

Every railroad corporation doing business or owning any railroad, wholly or in part within the limits of this state, shall furnish reasonable and proper facilities and accommodations on the line of its road, within its limits, for the transportation of passengers and merchandise.

A corporation that refuses or neglects to receive, forward, or deliver milk by the can at the tariff rates so fixed and notified to it by the division of public utilities and carriers, shall forfeit to the person tendering the same ten dollars ($10.00) for each and every can it s…

Every passenger upon a railroad within the limits of this state shall have the privilege of taking with him or her upon any train, on which he or she is a passenger, personal baggage not exceeding eighty pounds (80 lbs.) in weight, without any charge on the part of the railroad c…

Every railroad corporation carrying passengers in cars propelled by steam, which shall collect in the cars a greater fare than the price for which a single passage ticket is sold from the station at which the passenger takes the train, shall issue to the passenger a certificate f…

Every railroad corporation shall keep an account of the toll, freight, and passage money received at their depots and offices of receipt, and keep the same at all times in readiness for the examination of the general assembly, or the division of public utilities and carriers, or …

No railroad corporation shall abandon any railroad station that is on its road and in this state after the station has been established for twelve (12) months, except by permission of the commission; but the corporation may establish stations to be used only during certain months…