Bacon v. Boston & Maine Railroad

77 A. 858, 83 Vt. 528, 1910 Vt. LEXIS 227
Supreme Court of Vermont·Decided October 6, 1910·Published·Cited by 10 cases

Opinion

Haselton, J.

The nature of these cases, which are treated as one cause, is fully stated in the opinion therein already filed. See 83 Vt. 421. The history, too, of the cases down to the May Term, 1910, of this Court, when the opinion referred to was filed, is therein sufficiently traced. That opinion is to be read as a part of this.

After the decision at the May Term was rendered, on due notice to all parties, the Public Service Commission held a further [530]*530hearing in the cause and made a further report, decision and order, dated June 25, 1910, and filed July 1, 1910, from which the Central Vermont Railway Company appealed. The order of the commission which we have now to consider relates in part to the enlargement and reconstruction of the platform appurtenant to the passenger station at White River Junction, and in part to the interior arrangement and finish of such station. To the order in these respects the appealing party makes no objec-, tion.

The order also provides for the construction for the use of pedestrians of a subway extending under all of the railway tracks west of the station, they being the eight tracks referred to in the former opinion. 83 Vt. 421. The order further provides that there shall be constructed to the west of the railway tracks, north of the subway, and adjacent to its western entrance a baggage house and platform adequate to receive, deliver, and care for baggage on the west side of the tracks, and that there shall be made, as an approach to the same, a graveled driveway connecting a street called Main Street in the former opinion with a street, running easterly therefrom and nearly at right angles thereto, called the street by the National Bank. The contemplated driveway is short and lies upon land already held by the Central Vermont. The order further provides for the construction and maintenance of fences of such quality and location as to prevent “general public travel” over the tracks at grade to and from the station. The appellant challenges the right and authority of the Public Service Commission to order the subway and the westerly baggage house and platform which it has ordered as above stated.

The first claim of the appellant is that, in dealing with the dangerous situation at White River Junction, it was the duty of the commission to adopt a plan jointly proposed by the Central Vermont Railway Company and the Boston & Maine Railroad. This plan contemplates an underground driveway for teams as well as an underpass for foot-passengers. In its main features it is one of the plans referred to in this cause, 83 Vt. 421, 441, as having been discussed in the report of the commissioners filed next before the one now under consideration. In such former report the commissioners stated their reasons for not adopting the joint railroad plan then before them. These reasons were not [531]*531frivolous. One was that the plan provided for an abrupt turn in the underground driveway making it inconvenient and dangerous for teams going in opposite directions. Another reason given by the commissioners was that the grade at each end of the driveway was undesirable. Another reason was based on the small amount of platform space about the station provided by the plan, or that could be provided by any feasible plan, in view of the location of the station itself on a small piece of land enclosed on all sides by the tracks of the various railroads centering at this important junction. In discussing this plan the commissioners in their penultimate report say that one of the railroad engineers and one of the railroad officials testified, in substance, that no prudent person would take the risk of driving an average horse through the passage-way; and the finding of the commissioners was in accordance with such testimony. The joint railroad plan as presented to the commissioners at their last hearing was modified in some respects which are fully set out in the last report of the commissioners. Of this modified plan the commissioners say that although the proposed changes are manifest improvements they still leave the plan subject to most of the criticism made upon it in their earlier report, and that public safety and convenience require the rejection of the solution of the difficulty so offered. The appellant claims that in thus dismissing the matter the commissioners give no reason for their rejection of the joint railroad plan. But their reasons could have been given in no way more satisfactory to the court. "We are enabled to compare the features of the plan as originally submitted, the criticisms upon it by the commissioners, the modifications suggested, and to see for ourselves that most of the objections made by the commissioners to the original plan have not been obviated. It is urged that, as under the plan which the commissioners have ordered to be carried out, baggage, mail bags, express matter and goods going to and from the station, must still be carried across the tracks at grade, therefore the order of the commission deals inadequately with the situation, that the safety of the employees of the road is not safeguarded, that in consequence of this traffic the- trains of the road will necessarily be delayed more or less and will be exposed to derailment from collision. It is an obvious and conceded fact that the commissioners’ plan obviates so far as any plan can the danger [532]*532to passengers on foot. And since it puts a stop to the ‘ ‘ general public travel” over the tracks, which has formerly prevailed, it certainly will greatly aid the management of the roads in seeing that baggage, mail bags, express matter and other things necessary to be taken to and from the station are got across the tracks without danger to the railroad employees or others and without danger of collision with trains. In compelling the prohibition of “general public travel” across the tracks, and such travel only, the commissioners have left the railroad authorities free to arrange the matter of transportation across the tracks in a manner to suit the convenience and safety both of the patrons of the roads and the railroad employees. No ground has been suggested, and none occurs to us for saying that the commissioners transgressed the bounds of the authority committed to them in rejecting the joint railroad plan and in limiting the provision for a subway to an underpass for foot-passengers only.

The appellant makes a second objection to the order now under consideration; and that is that it destroys, or renders inadequate, the “team track” at White River Junction. By this is meant the track farthest west, and the claim is that it is absolutely necessary to place and keep ears thereon, and for teams to stand alongside thereof when freight is received or unloaded in the course of the transactions of the appellant company with its patrons doing business at White River Junction. More specifically the claim is that this most westerly track would be rendered practically useless by the construction on the west side of the tracks of the baggage house and platform ordered to be there constructed. When the question was before this Court of whether, in relieving the dangerous situation at White River Junction by the construction of an underpass, the commissioners could compel the elimination of the four westerly tracks of the Central Vermont Railway Company and an almost complete revision of its tracks at that terminal point, we held that an order to that effect could not be made as an incident to the construction of an underpass unless it was a necessary incident thereto. And we held that on the facts reported it appeared that those radical changes were not a necessary incident to the construction of an underpass.

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Bacon v. Boston & Maine Railroad, 77 A. 858, 83 Vt. 528, 1910 Vt. LEXIS 227 (Vt. 1910).

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