West Virginia Code
Article 2. Railroad Companies
§31-2-13. Enumerated Powers

In furtherance, and not in limitation, of the general or other powers of any railroad company, every such railroad company shall have the following powers, it being provided that the enumeration herein of specific powers shall not limit or restrict in any manner the general or other powers of such company:
(a) To cause such examination and survey for its proposed railroad or any extension or lateral or branch line, to be made as may be necessary to the selection of the most advantageous route, and for such purpose such company or its officers, agents, engineers or employees, may enter upon the lands or waters of any person or corporation; but subject to responsibility for all damages occasioned thereby.
(b) To lay out its road, not exceeding one hundred and fifty feet in width, with such additional width as may be necessary for the purpose of excavations and embankments for the proper construction, repair and security of the railroad; and to construct such road.
(c) To change or relocate at any time the line or lines, grade or location of its railroad, or any part thereof, and to construct a new line or lines, grade or location for the same for the purpose of reducing grades or curvature, or for the purpose of avoiding annoyance to public travel or dangerous or difficult or expensive curves or grades, or unsafe, impracticable, unsubstantial or expensive, or otherwise undesirable, locations, routes, grounds or foundations, or for otherwise improving the line or lines of railroad, or for other reasonable cause, and to construct cutoffs for any such purpose or cause; but this provision shall not be construed to give authority to such railroad company to abandon, unless otherwise provided by law, the use of such line or lines, as formerly located, if the continued use thereof shall be necessary to serve industries or communities thereon.
(d) To change the general route or termini of a proposed railroad, before the same has been originally completed; but such change of general route or termini before completion shall only be made when authorized by a majority of the stock of such corporation voting thereon at an annual or a special meeting of the stockholders, and it shall operate as a release of the right of such corporation to build on the abandoned location, and the order or resolution of the stockholders authorizing such change shall be certified by the corporation to the Secretary of State, and recorded in his office. All the provisions of law shall apply to the changed or new route, termini, location, grade and line mentioned in this subdivision or the last preceding subdivision.
(e) To construct its railroad across, along or upon any stream of water, watercourse, street, highway, state or county-district road, or canal, which the route of such railroad shall intersect or touch; but the exercise of such power shall be in accordance with the provisions of chapters seventeen and fifty-four of this code in relation thereto; but nothing in this chapter contained shall be construed to authorize the construction of any railroad upon or across any street, in the inhabited portion of a city, or incorporated town or village, without the assent of the corporation of such city, town or village.
(f) To take and hold under any grant or ordinance made by a municipal corporation any interest or right such municipal corporation may have in any street, alley or public ground, and such railroad corporation may in exchange therefor, in whole or in part, dedicate or otherwise secure to public use, another street, alley or parcel of ground out of real estate owned by such railroad corporation whether acquired by purchase or condemnation; or under an agreement with such municipal corporation may condemn land for use as such new street, alley or public ground, in the same manner as it may condemn land for its own use.
(g) To cross at grade, or to cross over or under, intersect, join and unite its railroad with any other railroad now built and constructed, or hereafter to be built and constructed within this state, at any point on its route, and upon the grounds of such other railroad company, with the necessary turnouts, sidings and switches, and other conveniences in furtherance of the object of its connections, and every corporation whose railroad is, or shall be hereafter intersected by any new railroad, shall unite with the corporation owning such new railroad in forming such intersections and connections and grant the facilities aforesaid; and if the two corporations cannot agree upon the amount of compensation to be made therefor, or the points and manner of such crossing and connections, the same shall be ascertained and determined in the manner prescribed by chapter fifty-four of this code.
(h) To construct, maintain and operate lateral and branch lines; to use and operate any part of its main line and of a lateral or branch line or lines when completed as though the whole of its railroad was completed; and to construct, maintain and operate telegraph and telephone lines along the line of its railroad and the lateral and branch lines thereof, and connecting with any of its offices, works and improvements.
(i) To erect or otherwise acquire and maintain all necessary or convenient structures, fixtures, machinery and facilities for the construction, maintenance or operation of the railroad or business of such corporation.
(j) To regulate the time and manner in which passengers and property shall be transported, and the compensation to be paid therefor, subject, nevertheless, to the provisions of any law that has been or may be hereafter enacted.
(k) From time to time to borrow money for all or any of the purposes of the corporation and to issue, sell, pledge, dispose of and transfer bonds, evidences of indebtedness and preferred stock, or any of them, for any money so borrowed; and to issue, sell, pledge, dispose of and transfer its stock, bonds and evidences of indebtedness, or any of them, for land, money, labor, property or materials for all or any of the purposes of such corporation; and in case it be found necessary to do so, such corporation may sell and dispose of its stocks, bonds and evidences of indebtedness, or any of them, at less than the par value thereof. And such corporation shall have the power from time to time to mortgage or pledge its property, real and personal, and franchises, to secure any bonds, stock, evidences of indebtedness, or any of them. And the directors of such corporation may be empowered, in pursuance of any order or resolution of the stockholders, to confer on any holder of any such bond for money borrowed by it the right to convert the principal due or owing thereon into stock of such corporation at such time, on such terms and under such regulations as may be provided in such order or resolution or the bylaws of such corporation.
(l) With the assent of the holders of two thirds of its stock, had by a vote at a stockholders' meeting, to become surety for, or guarantee, the bonds, stock or debt of any railroad company, or in any other manner aid such railroad company in the construction of its railroad or other works or improvements.

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