Note 1658 — ARTICLE I (continued 7)

Thus a railroad may be required, at its own expense and irrespective of benefits to itself, to eliminate grade crossings in the interest of public safety, (New York & N.E.R. Co. v. Bristol, 151 U.S. 556 (1894)); to make highway crossings reasonably safe and convenient for public use, (Great Northern R. Co. v. Minnesota, 246 U.S. 434 (1918)); to repair viaducts, (Northern Pac. R. Co. v. Minnesota, 208 U.S. 583 (1908)); and to fence its right of way, (Minneapolis & St. L.R. Co. v. Emmons, 149 U.S. 364 (1893)). Though a railroad company owns the right of way along a street, the city may require it to lay tracks to conform to the established grade; to fill in tracks at street intersections; and to remove tracks from a busy street intersection, when the attendant disadvantages and expense are small and the safety of the public appreciably enhanced, (Denver & R.G.R. Co. v. Denver, 250 U.S. 241 (1919)).

Likewise the State, in the public interest, may require a railroad to reestablish an abandoned station, even though the railroad commission had previously authorized its abandonment on condition that another station be established elsewhere, a condition which had been complied with, (New Haven & N. Co. v. Hamersley, 104 U.S. 1 (1881)). It may impose upon a railroad liability for fire communicated by its locomotives, even though the State had previously authorized the company to use said type of locomotive power, (St. Louis & S.F.R. Co. v. Mathews, 165 U.S. 1, 5 (1897)); and it may penalize the failure to cut drains through embankments so as to prevent flooding of adjacent lands, (Chicago & A.R. Co. v. Tranbarger, 238 U.S. 67 (1915)).