New York Railroad Law Article 3 - CONSTRUCTION, OPERATION AND MANAGEMENT

• 50 - Liability of Corporation to Employees of Contractor.
  An action may be maintained against any railroad corporation by any laborer for the amount due him from any contractor for the construction of any...
• 51 - Weight of Rail.
  The rail used in the construction or the relaying of the track of every railroad hereafter built or relaid in whole or in part shall...
• 51-a - Clearances.
  Clearance distance between adjacent tracks and between tracks and adjacent structures or obstructions and between the top of the rail and any overhead wire, bridge,...
• 52 - Fences, Farm Crossings and Cattle-Guards.
  Every railroad corporation, and any lessee or other person in possession of its road, shall, before the lines of its road are opened for use,...
• 52-a - Fences Along Road Operated by Electric Third Rail.
  Notwithstanding the provisions of section fifty-two or of any other law, general or special, within a city containing a population of over one million inhabitants...
• 52-b - Fences Along Right of Way.
  Notwithstanding the provisions of sections fifty-two, fifty-two-a, or fifty-two-c or of any other law, general or special, every railroad corporation shall erect and thereafter maintain...
• 52-c - Fences in Queens County.
  Notwithstanding the provisions of section fifty-two or of any other law, general or special, within Queens county every railroad corporation operating a railroad shall erect...
• 52-d - Debris to Be Cleared.
  Every railroad shall maintain and keep clear of debris the margins alongside their yard tracks used for switching operations where railroad employees are required to...
• 52-e - Penalties for Littering.
  1. No person shall throw, dump, or cause to be thrown, dumped, deposited or placed upon any railroad or subway tracks, or within the limits...
• 53 - Sign Boards, Flagmen and Gates At Crossings.
  1. Every railroad corporation shall cause a sign board to be placed, well supported and constantly maintained, at every crossing where its road is crossed...
• 53-a - Warning Signs.
  Every municipality or political subdivision, or in case of state highways the department of transportation, which is charged with the duty of maintaining a highway...
• 53-b - Ringing Bells and Blowing Whistles At Crossings.
  A person acting as engineer, driving a locomotive on any railway in this state, who fails to ring the bell, or sound the whistle, upon...
• 53-c - Obstructing Farm and Highway Crossings.
  Any officer or employee of a railroad corporation who shall intentionally obstruct, and any owner, officer or employee of a railroad corporation who shall intentionally...
• 53-d - Unlawful Propulsion of a Missile At Railroad Trains.
  A person is guilty of unlawful propulsion of a missile at a railroad train where he willfully with intent to cause personal injury or property...
• 53-e - Unlawful Interference With a Railroad Train.
  A person is guilty of unlawful interference with a railroad train when he wilfully with intent to disrupt, delay, or disturb service, places, causes to...
• 53-f - Joint Inspection of Traffic-Control Signals Interconnected With Highway-Rail At-Grade Crossing Warning Systems.
  53-f. Joint inspection of traffic-control signals interconnected with highway-rail at-grade crossing warning systems. 1. Notwithstanding the provisions of any other law to the contrary, the...
• 54 - Notice of Starting Trains; No Preferences.
  Every railroad corporation shall start and run its cars for the transportation of passengers and property at regular times, to be fixed by public notice,...
• 54-a - Communication.
  1. No class 1 or class 2 railroad common carrier or rail passenger carrier shall perform or cause to be performed any transportation service without...
• 55 - Accommodation of Connecting Roads.
  Every railroad corporation whose road, at or near the same place, connects with or is intersected by two or more railroads competing for its business,...
• 56 - Locomotives Must Stop At Grade Crossings.
  All trains and locomotives on railroads crossing each other at grade shall come to a full stop before crossing, not less than two hundred nor...
• 57 - Rates of Fare.
  Subject to the provisions of the transportation law, every railroad corporation may fix and collect the following rates of fare as compensation to be paid...
• 57-a - (Enacted Without Section Heading).
  57-a. A steam or electric railroad corporation having a franchise from this state, operating to and from stations within a city of over a million...
• 58 - Excess Charge When Fare Paid on Cars.
  It shall be lawful for any company owning or operating a steam railroad in this state, to demand and collect an excess charge of ten...
• 59 - Penalty for Excessive Fare.
  Any railroad corporation, which shall ask or receive more than the lawful rate of fare, unless such overcharge was made through inadvertence or mistake, not...
• 60 - Issue and Use of Mileage Books.
  Every railroad corporation operating a railroad in this state, the line or lines of which are more than one hundred miles in length, and which...
• 61 - Passenger Refusing to Pay Fare May Be Ejected.
  If any passenger shall refuse to pay his fare the conductor of the train, and the servants of the corporation, may put him and his...
• 61-a - Sounding of Certain Signals on Railroad Cars by Unauthorized Persons.
  A person who shall ring or sound a signal bell or device for starting or stopping a passenger car, of a street or other surface...
• 62 - Sleeping and Parlor Cars.
  Any railroad corporation may contract with any person, association or corporation for the hauling by the special or regular trains of said railroad corporation, the...
• 63 - Persons Employed As Drivers, Conductors, Motormen or Gripmen.
  Any railroad corporation may employ any inhabitant of the state, of the age of twenty-one years, not addicted to the use of intoxicating liquors, as...
• 64 - Injuries to Employees.
  In all actions against a railroad corporation, foreign or domestic, doing business in this state, or against a receiver thereof, for personal injury to, or...
• 65 - Conductors and Employees Must Wear Badges.
  Every conductor and employee of a railroad corporation employed on a passenger train, or at stations for passengers, shall wear upon his hat or cap...
• 66 - Checks for Baggage.
  A check, made of some proper substance of convenient size and form, plainly stamped with numbers, and furnished with a convenient strap or other appendage...
• 67 - Penalties for Injuries to Baggage.
  Any person whose duty it is for or on behalf of the common carrier to handle, remove, or care for the baggage of passengers, who...
• 68 - Unclaimed Freight and Baggage.
  Every railroad or other transportation corporation, doing business in this state, which shall have unclaimed freight or baggage, not live stock or perishable, in its...
• 69 - Minimum Standards for Track Inspection and Maintenance.
  In the case of all tracks over which there are regularly scheduled passenger movements, and all tracks currently being used for the movement of freight...
• 70 - Rights and Liabilities As Common Carriers.
  Every railroad corporation doing business in this state shall be a common carrier. Any one of two or more corporations owning or operating connecting roads,...
• 71 - Duties Imposed.
  It shall be the duty of every railroad corporation operating its road by steam: 1. To lay, in the construction of new and in the...
• 71-a - Reflective Whistle Signs.
  1. It shall be the duty of every class one railroad operating in the state of New York to install a retro-reflective whistle sign at...
• 72 - Inspection of Locomotives.
  It shall be the duty of every railroad corporation which operates a railroad not exceeding fifty miles in length by steam power or any other...
• 73 - Inspectors of Locomotives.
  Inspectors shall be appointed by the commissioner of transportation, who shall be familiar with the construction and operation of steam locomotives and their appurtenances, whose...
• 74 - Care of Steam Locomotives; Steam and Water Cocks; Penalty.
  It shall be the duty of every corporation operating a steam railroad, within this state, and of its directors, managers or superintendents, to cause the...
• 75 - Commissioner of Transportation May Approve Other Safeguards.
  The commissioner of transportation may, on the application of any railroad corporation, authorize it to use any other safeguard or device approved by the commissioner...
• 76 - Use of Stoves or Furnaces Prohibited; Exceptions.
  It shall not be lawful for any railroad corporation operating a steam railroad in this state of the length of fifty miles or more, excepting...
• 76-a - Motor Cars and Equipment.
  1. It shall be unlawful for any owner or operator of railroad running through or within the boundaries of the state of New York, and...
• 76-b - Equipment Required on Motor Vehicles Transporting Railroad Employees; Penalty.
  1. Every motor vehicle provided by the owner or operator railroad and used to transport employees shall be equipped with adequate seating facilities, heating facilities...
• 77 - Equipment of Engines.
  It shall be unlawful for any railroad company to use within the state on its line or lines any locomotive engine not equipped with a...
• 77-a - First-Aid Equipment on Locomotives.
  It shall be unlawful to operate a locomotive outside the designated yard limits of any railroad in the state of New York unless said locomotive...
• 77-b - Speedometers on Certain Locomotives.
  (a) No railroad locomotive may be operated in excess of thirty miles per hour within the state without a speedometer functioning correctly within four miles...
• 77-c - Sanitary Conditions.
  1. It shall be the duty of every railroad corporation which operates a railroad within the state and whose annual revenue derived exclusively from freight...
• 78 - Coal Jimmies and Caboose Cars.
  The use of cars known and designated as "coal jimmies" in any form and the use of any car as a caboose unless it shall...
• 78-a - Electric or Battery-Powered Markers.
  1. Any railroad using a passenger, mail, work, or wreck train shall equip the last car of each such train with electric markers of sufficient...
• 79 - Air-Brakes.
  It shall be unlawful for any railroad or other company to haul or permit to be hauled or used on its line or lines within...
• 80 - Couplers.
  It shall be unlawful for any railroad or other company to haul, or permit to be hauled or used, on its line or lines within...
• 81 - Violation of Sections Seventy-Seven, Seventy-Seven-c, Seventy-Eight, Seventy-Nine, and Eighty.
  Any railroad or other company hauling or permitting to be hauled on its line or lines any train in violation of any of the provisions...
• 82 - Canada Thistles to Be Cut.
  Every railroad corporation doing business within this state, shall cause all Canada thistles, white and yellow daisies and other noxious weeds growing on any lands...
• 83 - Riding on Platform; Walking Along Track.
  No railroad corporation shall be liable for any injury to any passenger while on the platform of a car, or in any baggage, wood or...
• 83-a - Operation of Motor Vehicles, Snowmobiles, Recreational Vehicles, and Riding of Animals on Railroad Property.
  Except in the case of a railroad employee, contractor of the railroad corporation or public official acting in the performance of his or her duties,...
• 83-b - Trespass Upon Railroad Premises.
  1. Any city with a population of one million or more and the counties of Monroe, Nassau, and Suffolk are authorized and empowered to adopt...
• 84 - Corporations May Establish Ferries.
  Any steam railroad corporation, incorporated under the laws of this state, with a terminus in the harbor of New York, may purchase or lease boats...
• 85 - Certain Railroads May Cease Operation in Winter.
  The directors of any railroad corporation operating a railroad, constructed and used principally for transporting lumber or ores, during the summer months, or for summer...
• 86 - Certain Railroads Need Not Be Operated Beyond June, July, August and September.
  Subject to the permission and approval of the commissioner of transportation, any corporation, whose railroad is or shall be not longer than sixteen miles and...
• 87 - Mails.
  Any railroad corporation shall, when applied to by the postmaster-general, convey the mails of the United States on its road, and in case such corporation...
• 88 - When Railroads May Designate Policemen.
  1. Upon the application of any corporation owning or operating a railroad, express company operating over a railroad, or of any steamboat company, the superintendent...
• 89 - New Railroads Across Streets.
  All steam surface railroads built after the first day of July, eighteen hundred and ninety-seven, except additional switches and sidings, must be so constructed as...
• 90 - New Streets Across Railroads.
  When a new street, avenue, highway or road or new portion or additional lane of a street, avenue, highway or road shall hereafter be constructed...
• 91 - Alteration or Rehabilitation of Existing Crossing.
  The mayor or city manager and common council of any city, the president or mayor and trustees of any village, the town board of any...
• 92 - Acquisition of Land, Right or Easement in Crossing.
  The commissioner of transportation may acquire in the same manner that property and rights therein are acquired for state highway purposes pursuant to the highway...
• 93 - Repair of Bridges and Subways At Crossings.
  When a highway crosses a railroad by an overhead bridge, the framework of the bridge and its abutments shall be maintained and kept in repair...
• 93-a - Maintenance and Removal of Highway-Railroad Crossing At Grade.
  The responsibility of a railroad corporation to maintain and keep in repair highway-railroad crossings at grade as provided by law shall not terminate upon the...
• 93-b - Maintenance and Removal of Highway-Railroad Separation Structures.
  The responsibility of a railroad corporation to maintain and keep in repair highway-railroad separation structures as provided by law shall not terminate upon the abandonment...
• 94 - Performance of Work; Division of Expenses; Accounting; Claims for Damages; Valuation.
  1. Whenever under section eighty-nine a new railroad is constructed across an existing highway, the expense of crossing above or below the grade of the...
• 95 - Proceedings by Commissioner of Transportation for Alteration of Existing Crossings.
  The commissioner of transportation may, in the absence of any application therefor, when in his opinion public interest requires an alteration in an existing grade...
• 96 - Proceedings to Enforce Orders of Commissioner of Transportation.
  It shall be the duty of the corporation, municipality or person or persons to whom the decisions or orders of the commissioner of transportation are...
• 97 - Intercity Rail Passenger Service.
  1. As used in this section, unless a different meaning clearly appears from the context, the term: a. "Intercity rail passenger service" shall mean any...
• 97-a - Commuter Rail Service.
  1. As used in this section, unless a different meaning clearly appears from the context, the term: a. "Commuter rail service" shall mean any rail...
• 98 - Intersection of Railroads.
  All steam railroads hereafter constructed across the tracks of any other railroad and any street surface railroad hereafter constructed across a steam railroad shall be...
• 99 - Application of Foregoing Section.
  The provisions of sections eighty-nine to ninety-eight, inclusive, of this chapter shall also apply to all steam surface railroads existing on the first day of...
• 100 - Temporary Leave Granted by Court to a Street Surface Railroad; Bond.
  Whenever the railroad or route of any street surface railroad corporation shall intersect and cross, or shall cross the tracks and roadbed of any railroad,...
• 101 - Consent of Commissioner of Transportation in Certain Cases.
  No street surface railroad shall be allowed to lay its tracks at grade across the tracks or roadbed of any railroad operated by locomotive steam...
• 102 - Ventilation of Tunnels.
  The commissioner of transportation is hereby authorized, empowered and given full and complete authority to require and compel all tunnels used or to be used...
• 103 - Lighting of Tunnels.
  The commissioner of transportation is also hereby authorized, empowered and given full and complete authority to require and compel all tunnels used or to be...
• 104 - Compliance With Orders of Commissioner of Transportation.
  Whenever the commissioner of transportation shall cause to be personally served upon any railroad corporation controlling any tunnel or part of a tunnel in this...
• 105 - Enforcement.
  After the expiration of thirty days from the service of said order or notice specified in the preceding section, as therein directed, if said corporation...
• 106 - Penalty for Violation.
  Every corporation violating any of the provisions of the preceding four sections shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and may be indicted therefor, and may...
• 107 - Judgment-Roll.
  It shall be the duty of the district attorney prosecuting any corporation for a violation of any of the provisions of sections one hundred and...
• 108 - Approval of Appliances in Cities Having a Population of One Million Inhabitants or Over.
  In cities in this state having a population of one million inhabitants or over, where tunnels are or may hereafter be operated or controlled by...

Last modified: February 3, 2019