W. Va. Code § 31-2-1

This is the official text of W. Va. Code § 31-2-1, part of West Virginia’s Va. Code — part of the compiled statutory law of West Virginia, published by the state as "Va. Code." Browse the sections below, each linked to its official government source.

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§31-2-1. Railroad companies to be common carriers; general powers.

Official statutory text

Every railroad company heretofore incorporated and organized under the laws of this state, or under the laws of any other state, and authorized or licensed to do business in this state, and every such company which hereafter shall be incorporated and organized under the provisions of article one of this chapter, or authorized or licensed to transact business under said article, is a common carrier, and is authorized to acquire, construct, and own, maintain, operate and hold, railway lines, plants and systems, and any and all other suitable facilities for, and to engage in transporting persons and all commodities, objects and things which are subjects of commerce or of transportation by any and all means and methods, which are now used, or which may hereafter be developed, for such purpose.

No such railroad company shall engage in any other business in this state, except as hereinafter authorized.

Status: in_force · Read it on the official government site

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About this page: Statute text is reproduced from official government publishers via the Open US Law dataset (Vaquill AI, snapshot v2026.08, CC BY 4.0). Primary legislative text like this is public domain under the government-edicts doctrine (Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, 2020). We link every section back to its official source so you can verify it independently.