Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe Railway Co. v. Texas

Citations

• 246 U.S. 58
• 38 S. Ct. 236
• 62 L. Ed. 574
• 1918 U.S. LEXIS 1519

Syllabus

<p>An order of a state commission requiring the stopping of certain interstate .trains for reception and discharge of passengers at a county seat of only 1500 population, upheld, in view of a statute, not directed adversely at interstate trains, but specifying the train sendee to be supplied to all county seats and evidencing a legislative estimate (not' here confuted) of county seat needs.-</p> <p>Serious doubt is expressed as to whether the order could be sustained, from the standpoint of the local requirements of the population merely, viz: as meeting a need for sleeping car sendee and as an accommodation to passengers using the trains in question to reach the city.</p> <p>The need of making fast time in competition with other railroads and in carrying the mail, held, not in this case to render the order unduly burdensome to interstate commerce, it appearing that the required stops would consume but a few minutes each, that stops are made voluntarily at all other county seats and some smaller places, and that there is a detour in the routing.</p> <p>Power in a state commission' to order stops by interstate trains, not resulting in direct burden on interstate commerce, in pursuance of a statute not aimed' at such trains .but specifying train service required at county seats, may coexist with the duty imposed on carriers respecting regulations for transportation facilities by the Hepburn Act ^of June 29, 1906, c. 3591, § 1, 34 Stat. 584, and the Act of June 18, 1910, c. 309, § 7, 36 Stat. 546, and the jurisdiction of the Interstate Commerce Commission over such matters, if the order is not in conflict with regulations of the latter Commission.</p> <p>A railroad company which does not avail itself of an opportunity given by the state law to test the validity of an order of a state commission in the state or federal court, cannot be relieved from a cumulation of penalties due to its violations, of the order while awaiting proceedings by the State.</p>