Chap. 149.—An ACT to authorize any railroad company, with the consent of
the State corporation commission, to construct, purchase or take a lease of
any railroad not exceeding twenty-five miles in length, which will furnish
a cut-off or connecting line for the more efficient and economical transporta-
tion of traffic.

Approved March 5, 1908.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That any rail-
road company incorporated under the laws of this State, or of this State
or another State or States, may, with the consent of the State corporation
commission first obtain, construct, purchase or take a lease of any rail-
road, not exceeding twenty-five miles in length, which will furnish said
company a cut-off or connecting line between two points on its own line
for the more efficient and economical transportation of traffic passing
between said two points; and any railroad company incorporated under
the laws of this State, or of this State and another State or States
owning a completed or partly completed line suitable for such cut-off
or connecting line, may, with the consent of the State corporation com-
mission first obtained, sell or lease the same to such other corporation ;
but the consent as aforesaid of the State corporation commission shall
be given only if said commission shall be of the opinion that the purpose
and effect of the construction, purchase or lease of such cut-off or con-
necting line is, and will be, to enable the company constructing or
purchasing the same or taking a lease thereof, to transport its traffic
passing between such two points more efficiently and economically by
reason of the lower grades or better alignment of such cut-off or con-
necting line, or for other cause; provided, however, that the construction,
purchase or lease of any such cut-off or connecting railroad shall not.
relieve the company constructing or purchasing the same, or taking a
lease thereof, from any legal obligation to operate any portion of its
line or lines of railroad; but nothing in this act shall be construed to
repeal, or in any way to modify the provisions of section nineteen of an
act of the general assembly of Virginia entitled “an act concerning the
exercise of power of eminent domain,” approved January eighteenth,
nineteen hundred and four, and found in chapter six hundred and
eight of the acts of assembly, extra session, nineteen hundred and two,
three, four. ,

2. Any railroad accepting the provision of this act, shall be deemed to
waive any and all exemptions of taxes it may have.