2021 Georgia Code
Title 46 - Public Utilities and Public Transportation
Chapter 8 - Railroad Companies
Article 5 - Construction, Improvement, and Repair of Rail Lines, Depots, and Roads
§ 46-8-120. Powers of Railroad Companies Generally

1. Any railroad company owning or operating a railroad in this state, whether such company is chartered under the laws of this state or under the laws of any other state, is authorized and empowered:
   1. To reconstruct its lines or tracks, to build one or more additional main tracks, to relocate any line or portions of a line, and to build, as a substitute for trestles, embankments upon which tracks may be laid or to widen cuts where necessary for proper construction or maintenance;
   2. For obtaining gravel and other material, to take as much land as may be necessary for the purpose of construction, operation, and maintenance of such road;
   3. To cut any trees that may be in any danger of falling on the tracks or obstructing the right of way, making compensation therefor as provided by law;
   4. To build and maintain such additional depots, tracks, and terminal facilities as may be necessary for the proper accommodation of the business of the company; and
   5. To construct, maintain, and operate tracks for the purpose of connecting two or more lines of railroad operated by the same company not more than ten miles apart.
2. Notwithstanding subsection (a) of this Code section, no railroad company shall be authorized so to change the location of an existing line as to leave off of the line of railroad to be operated by it any of the passenger or freight stations now existing under the same without the express approval of the commission.

(Ga. L. 1914, p. 144, § 1; Code 1933, § 94-321; Ga. L. 1957, p. 403, § 1.)

RESEARCH REFERENCES

Am. Jur. 2d.

- 65 Am. Jur. 2d, Railroads, §§ 110 et seq., 241 et seq.

- 74 C.J.S., Railroads, §§ 133 et seq., 743 et seq., 783, 802 et seq.

- Right of grantor of railroad right of way or his privy to recover damages for interference with surface water by construction of road, 19 A.L.R. 487.

Right of railroad company in respect of material or mineral within right of way, 21 A.L.R. 1131.

Right of abutting owner to compensation for railroad in street under constitutional provision against damaging property for public use without compensation, 22 A.L.R. 145.

Assessment of railroad right of way for local improvements, 37 A.L.R. 219; 82 A.L.R. 425.

Liability of railroad company to property owner for change of grade incident to construction of overhead or underground crossing, 57 A.L.R. 657.

Limitation applicable to action or proceeding by owner for compensation where property is taken in exercise of eminent domain without antecedent condemnation proceeding, 123 A.L.R. 676.

Condemnation of premises or part thereof as affecting rights of landlord and tenant inter se, 163 A.L.R. 679.

Condemner's waiver, surrender, or limitation, after award, of rights or part of property acquired by condemnation, 5 A.L.R.2d 724.

Compensation for, or extent of rights acquired by, taking of land, as affected by condemner's promissory statements as to character of use or undertakings to be performed by it, 7 A.L.R.2d 364.

Spur track and the like as constituting a use for which railroad can validly exercise right of eminent domain, 35 A.L.R.2d 1326.

Admissibility, in eminent domain proceeding, of evidence as to price paid for condemned real property during pendency of the proceeding, 55 A.L.R.2d 781.

Admissibility, in eminent domain proceeding, of evidence as to price paid for condemned real property on sale prior to the proceeding, 55 A.L.R.2d 791.

What constitutes abandonment of railroad right of way, 95 A.L.R.2d 468.

Eminent domain: right of owner of land not originally taken or purchased as part of adjacent project to recover, on enlargement of project to include adjacent land, enhanced value of property by reason of proximity to original land - state cases, 95 A.L.R.3d 752.

Eminent domain: recovery of value of improvements made with knowledge of impending condemnation, 98 A.L.R.3d 504.

State statute of limitations applicable to inverse condemnation or similar proceedings by landowner to obtain compensation for direct appropriation of land without the institution or conclusion of formal proceedings against specific owner, 26 A.L.R.4th 68.

Interstate Commerce Commission's exercise of authority under § 223 of Staggers Rail Act of 1980 (49 USCS § 11103(c)) to require rail carriers to enter into reciprocal switching agreement, 105 A.L.R. Fed. 637.