Title 58, Public Utilities, Services and Carriers

Every such corporation may make such bylaws for its regulation and government in any and all matters whatsoever, not inconsistent with the Constitution and laws of the United States and of this State, as may be deemed necessary and may add to, alter or amend them from time to tim…

Any such company may mortgage its property and franchises and issue bonds on such terms and conditions and for such purposes and uses of the corporation as the company may from time to time deem necessary.

No railroad corporation which has previously issued bonds shall subsequently make or execute any mortgage upon its road, equipment and franchises, or any of its property, real or personal, without including in and securing by such mortgage all bonds previously issued and all pre-…

Every railroad company shall have every right, power and privilege necessary for the purpose of acquiring such lands or rights-of-way as it may require for the location or construction of such railway, for the erection or location of depots, warehouses, stations and other necessa…

Railroad corporations organized under the provisions of this chapter may acquire rights-of-way, not exceeding seventy-five feet from the center of their track in each direction, and additional land necessary for deep cuts, high fills, borrow pits, streams and highway changes made…

Every such company may connect with or cross any other railroad on its line and may purchase, lease or consolidate with, or sell or lease its property and franchises to, any other railroad in or out of this State, in such manner and upon such terms as may be agreed between such r…

It shall be lawful for any railroad or railway corporation chartered by this State, and it shall be taken as the exercise of powers conferred by its charter, to continue or extend the main track or line of such railroad or any extension thereof or to build or extend branch roads …

Any railroad company owning or operating a railroad, or any part thereof, in this State, under authority of the laws of this State, may reconstruct its lines, tracks or any part of them, relocate or straighten any line or lines or portion of a line or lines, build embankments for…

In all cases under the provisions of the General Railroad Law the rules of evidence shall be the same as in civil actions, except as herein otherwise provided.

For the purposes mentioned in Section 58-17-1190 any railroad company may acquire by purchase or gift and hold real estate necessary, and if the real estate is not acquired by purchase or gift, the railroad company may acquire it by condemnation.

Every such company may also forthwith, upon the completion or acquirement by purchase, lease or consolidation of any portion or section of its railroad between any points through which it may run under its charter, operate and maintain such portion or section, with all the rights…

All fines recovered under the provisions of the General Railroad Law shall be paid one half into the State Treasury, to be used for such purposes as the General Assembly may provide, and the other half into the county treasury of the county in which the case is tried.

The Public Service Commission shall regulate and control by special order in each case the manner in which any street, street railway or other railroad track may cross any railroad track and the manner of constructing culverts under any railroad so as to effect proper drainage of…

A railroad shall not be constructed to cross another railroad at the same level or across navigable or tidewaters without the consent, in writing, of the Office of Regulatory Staff, in the manner as the Office of Regulatory Staff prescribes. It is unlawful for any corporation to …

When a railroad is laid out across a highway or other way it shall be constructed so as not to obstruct such way.

A railroad corporation may alter the course of a highway or other way, other than a street in any incorporated city or town, for the purpose of facilitating the crossing of it by its road, or permitting its road to pass at the side thereof without crossing, upon obtaining a decre…

A railroad corporation whose road is crossed by a highway or other way within the corporate limits of any city or town on a level therewith, shall, at its own expense, so guard or protect its rails by plank, timber or otherwise as to secure a safe and easy passage across its road…

A highway or town way may be laid out across a railroad previously constructed when the governing body of the county adjudge that the public convenience and necessity require it and, in such case, after due notice to the railroad corporation and hearing all parties interested, su…

Each railroad company whose line of road lies wholly or partly in this State shall construct and keep in repair an adequate stock guard or cattle gap at every point where the line of railroad of any such company crosses the line of any fence in this State. For every violation of …

Whenever lines of two steam railroads cross each other on the same grade in this State, every train on either shall be brought to a full stop before reaching the crossing. But this section shall not apply when the crossing is equipped with interlocking devices, signal lights, sem…

Every railroad corporation shall cause signs to be placed and constantly maintained alongside of each public road or street where it is crossed by the railroad on the same level. Each such sign shall be elevated so as to be easily seen by travelers and on each side of it shall be…

The Office of Regulatory Staff shall make an annual report to the General Assembly of its official acts, including such statements, facts, and explanations as will disclose the actual working of the system of railroad transportation in its bearing upon the business and prosperity…

The Public Service Commission may, upon the application of a county supervisor, if it deem it necessary, require any railroad corporation to have a stationary flagman at any crossing the importance of which may demand it.

Any such railroad company, after receiving such notice, may, within ten days after such receipt, apply to the circuit court of the circuit in which such crossing is situated, or to a judge thereof if the court be not in session, and claim a re-examination of the locality and a re…

Every railroad company shall, within the time indicated by the Commission or county supervisor, as the case may be, or within the time given by the civil engineer to such corporation upon re-examination, maintain and construct such crossing in the manner demanded of it by the Com…

If a person is injured in his person or property by collision with the engine or any car of a railroad corporation at a crossing and it appears that the corporation neglected to give the signals required by the General Railroad Law and that such neglect contributed to the injury,…

All railroad crossings on public highways must be inspected for conditions which unsafely obstruct a motorist's view of approaching trains, for the presence of crossbucks prescribed by Section 58-17-1390, and for the presence of stop signs authorized by law to be placed at railro…

(A) Whenever, in the judgment of the Office of Regulatory Staff, it shall appear that repairs are necessary upon any such railroad or that any addition to the rolling stock or any enlargement of, or improvement in, the stations or station houses, any modification in the rates of …

In the exercise of the powers and rights conferred in this chapter no railroad shall remove its line of railway from any incorporated town of more than five hundred inhabitants through which it now runs.

Each railroad company chartered by this State is required to file in the Office of Regulatory Staff, on or before the thirty-first day of March in each year, a full and detailed schedule and report of the condition and operations of the road for the current year ending on the thi…

The Office of Regulatory Staff must require the annual reports to be made by railroad companies in manner and form and at the time provided for herein and may require reports to be made of other matters. The Office of Regulatory Staff may, from time to time, make changes it consi…

Every railroad company owning or operating a line of railroad situated in whole or in part within the limits of this State must deposit with the Office of Regulatory Staff a list containing the names and residences of the president and board of directors of the railroad company o…

Every railroad corporation must at all times, on request, furnish the Office of Regulatory Staff any information required by it concerning the condition, management, and operation of its railroad and particularly with copies of time tables and the rates of transporting freight an…

The Office of Regulatory Staff may make and propound to any of the railroad companies of this State any interrogatories additional to those contained in the schedule and report herein provided for, which must be answered by the companies in the same manner.

The Office of Regulatory Staff must, when necessary, investigate the books and papers of the railroad companies doing business in this State, ascertain if the rules and regulations of the commission have been complied with, and make personal visitations of railroad offices, stati…

The Office of Regulatory Staff may examine all agents and employees of railroad companies and other persons under oath and otherwise, in order to procure the necessary information to make just and reasonable rates of freight and passenger tariffs, and to ascertain if rules and re…

The Office of Regulatory Staff, in making an examination for the purpose of obtaining information pursuant to this chapter, may obtain from the commission subpoenas for the attendance of witnesses pursuant to such rules as the commission may prescribe and the witnesses must recei…

Every officer, agent, or employee of any railroad company who wilfully neglects or refuses to make and furnish any report required by the commission as necessary to the purposes of this chapter or who wilfully hinders, delays, or obstructs the commission in the discharge of the d…

The Office of Regulatory Staff shall have the general supervision of all railroads and railways in this State operated by steam and must examine them and keep informed as to their condition and the manner in which they are operated, with reference to the security and accommodatio…

Whenever in the judgment of the Office of Regulatory Staff it shall appear that any such corporation has violated any law or neglected, in any respect or particular, to comply with the terms of its charter or with the provisions of any of the laws of the State, especially in rega…

The powers herein conferred upon the Commission to fix passenger and freight rates, joint and several, are hereby delegated to it by the General Assembly as fully as the General Assembly itself could exercise them.

Nothing in the General Railroad Law shall be taken as in any manner abridging or controlling the rates for freight charged by any railroad company in this State for carrying freight which comes from or goes beyond the boundaries of the State or on which less than local rates on a…

The Public Service Commission shall: (1) As provided in Section 58-17-1850, make reasonable and just rates of freight and passenger tariffs, to be observed by all railroad companies doing business in this State on the railroads therein; (2) Make reasonable and just routes to be o…

Before applying joint rates to roads that are not under the management and control of one company the Commission shall give thirty days' notice to such roads of the joint rate contemplated and of its division between such roads and shall give a hearing to any road desiring to obj…

The commission must make for each of the railroad corporations doing business in this State, as soon as practicable, a schedule of just and reasonable rates of charges for transportation of passengers and freight cars on each of the railroads. When a lawsuit involves a railroad c…

When any such schedule for any such railroad company shall have been made or revised such railroad company shall post at each of its stations a copy of such schedule for the protection of the people. Any railroad corporation which shall fail to post at any of its stations a copy …