ARRANGEMENT OF SECTIONS
SECTION
1. Short title
2. (1) Interpretation
(2) Powers of assistant managers
3. Sanction by Minister of railway construction
4. Deposit and approval of plans, sections, etc.
5. (1) Railway to be made according to plans
(2) Deviation
6. [Repealed by 21 of 1970]
PART I
CONSTRUCTION AND WORKS
7. (1) Authority of railway administration to execute all necessary work
(2) Alteration of pipes, wires, and drain
8. Temporary entry upon land for repairing or preventing accident
9. Compensation to be made for lands taken or injuriously affected
10. Purchase of land and compensation by agreement
11. Accommodation works
12. Power for owner, occupier or local authority to cause additional accommodation works to be made
13. Fences, screens, gates and bars
14. Removal of trees dangerous to or obstructing the working of a railway
PART II
OPENING OF THE RAILWAY
15. Right to use locomotives
16. Notice of intended opening of a railway
17. Sanction of Minister to opening of railway
18. Reopening line after temporary suspension of traffic
19. Inspection
20. Power to close railway when opened
21. Reopening railway when closed
22. Penalty for contravention of Part II
PART III
TRAFFIC
23. Duty of railway administration as to traffic facilities
24. Facilities to be given for forwarding traffic by connected railways
25. (1) No undue preference to be given
(2) Terminals
26. Proceedings when complaint is made of breach of last two sections
27. Proof of undue preference
28. [Repealed by 6 of 1970]
29. Returns
30. Provision for letters
PART IV
RATES
31. Taxation of railway by local authorities
PART V
LEGAL PROCEEDINGS
32. Actions by and against railway administration
33. Restriction on execution against railway property
34. Service of summonses, notices, etc.
PART VI
RESPONSIBILITY OF A RAILWAY ADMINISTRATION AS CARRIERS
35. Liability for loss or injury in respect of goods
36. Provisions as to liability in respect of carriage of certain animals
37. Liability as to passengers’ luggage
38. Liability as to articles of special value
39. Burden of proof in respect of loss of animals or goods
40. Notification of claims for compensation for loss, etc., and for refund of overcharges
41. Exoneration from responsibility in case of goods falsely described
PART VII
ACCIDENTS
42. Report of accidents
43. Power to make Rules regarding notices
44. Submission of return of accidents
45. Penalties for failure to comply with sections 42 and 43
46. Penalty for failure to comply with section 44
47. Provision for compulsory medical examination of person injured in railway accident
PART VIII
MANAGEMENT
48. General Rules
49. Disposal of differences, between railways regarding conduct of joint traffic
50. Maximum load for wagons
51. Maximum number of passengers
52. Powers of Manager over railway officials
53. Fares to be prepaid Passenger tickets to be given up on demand
54. Fare and freight to be accepted conditionally
55. Penalty for fraud
56. Fine for entering or leaving carriage in motion or riding on steps
57. Fine for riding on engine, tender or luggage van
58. Where smoking and chewing betel, etc., prohibited
59. Penalty for intoxication or nuisance
60. Passengers may be directed as to the carriage or compartment in which they shall travel
61. Penalty for entering private room or carriage
62. Remedy for non-payment of the carriage of goods
Remedy for non-payment of fare
63. Written account of goods to be given on demand
64. Penalty for giving no account or false account
65. Carriage of goods of a dangerous nature
66. Persons suffering from leprosy, etc., not allowed to travel
67. Penalty for trespass
68. Penalty for driving an animal upon or across a railway
69. Penalty for defacing pass or ticket
70. Penalty for obstructing railway servant
71. Occupation crossings
72. Liability of owner of animal trespassing
73. Penalty for injury to carriage, etc.
74. Penalty for opening or not properly shutting gates or chains
75. Obstructing engine or carriages or endangering safety of passengers
76. Penalty for wilful act or omission endangering passengers
77. Penalty for drunkenness or breach of duty by railway official
78. Penalty for an act not wilful
79. Unauthorized stopping of trains
80. Breach of Rules
81. Apprehension of offenders
82. Provisions where it is necessary to arrest railway official
83. Construction of the Act
84. Liability of offenders to pay costs of conviction
85. Recovery of money due; damages and expenses
86. Limitation of time for commencement of actions and prosecutions
87. Enforcing payment of fare by passenger not producing ticket
88. A copy, of this Act to be shown at railway stations
89. Penalty for removing documents or notices
7 of 1907
36 of 1952
20 of 1954(F)
1 of 1957
6 of 1970
21 of 1970
s.6 and 2nd Sch
G.N. 200/1963
219/1964(N)
166/1967
An Act to regulate the construction, control, management and operation of railways in Malawi and for matters incidental thereto s.6 and 2nd Sch.
[1ST OCTOBER, 1907]
1. Short title and application
This Act may be cited as the Railways Act. It shall apply to all railways in Malawi whether already completed or in the course of construction or hereafter to be constructed.
(1) In this Act and in any Rules made hereunder unless the context otherwise requires—
“Manager” means the person appointed by the Minister or by a Railway Company as the case may be to act as Manager of a railway;
“assistant manager” means an assistant manager of a Railway Company;
“railway” means a railway or any portion of a railway for the public carriage of passengers, animals or goods and includes—
(a) all land within the fences or other boundary marks indicating the limits of the land appurtenant to a railway;
(b) all lines of rails, sidings, or branches worked over for the purposes of or in connexion with a railway;
(c) all stations, offices, warehouses, wharves, workshops, manufactories, fixed plant and machinery and other works constructed for the purposes of or in connexion with a railway; and
(d) all ferries, ships, boats and crafts which are used for the traffic of a railway and belong to or are hired or worked by the authority administering the railway;
“the railway administration” in the case of a railway administered by the Government means the Manager and includes the Government and also, so long as the railway is in course of construction, the Resident Engineer and in the case of a railway administered by a Railway Company means the Railway Company;
“Railway Company” includes any person or persons whether incorporated or not who are owners or lessees of a railway or parties to an agreement for working a railway but shall not include the Government;
“railway official” or “railway servant” includes the Manager, the assistant managers and all such officers, servants, agents and other persons as shall be from time to time employed to do any act upon a railway.
Powers of assistant managers
(2) All duties and powers hereinafter required to be performed and exercised by the Manager shall and may be performed and exercised by an assistant manager.
3. Sanction by Minister of railway construction
If any Company is desirous of constructing a railway within Malawi, it shall deposit in the Ministry of Transport and Communications a scheme for such railway stating the general direction and terminal points of the proposed railway accompanied by a map and thereupon the Minister, with and subject to the approval of the Minister responsible for Land after making such inquiries as he thinks fit may reject or provisionally approve the scheme.
4. Deposit and approval of plans, sections, etc.
(1) After any railway has been provisionally approved under section 3 or after Government has decided to construct any railway the Government or the Railway Company as the case may be shall deposit for public inspection in Malawi in such public offices or elsewhere as the Minister may order—
(a) plans and sections on such a scale and showing such particulars as the Minister may direct or as may be required by any Rules made hereunder; and
(b) a Book of Reference containing the names of the owners and lessees or reputed owners and lessees of the lands required or which may be taken for the purposes of this Act in respect of such plan.
(2) Notice shall be given of the deposit of such plans and Books of Reference by advertisement in the Gazette calling on all persons having any objection to the said plans and Books of Reference to send in a statement of their objections in writing to the Ministry of Transport and Communications within three months from the date of such notice.
(3) At the expiration of the said period of three months the said plans and sections together with the objections thereto shall be considered and approved or amended by the Minister.
(4) The said plans and sections if approved or amended by the Minister shall be deemed to be the deposited plans referred to in this Act.
5. Railway to be made according to plans
(1) Any railway constructed under this Act shall be made and maintained in the lines and according to the levels shown on the deposited plans and sections with all proper bridges, viaducts, stations, sidings, approaches, junctions, roads, buildings, yards, works and conveniences connected therewith and incidental thereto.
Deviation
(2) It shall be lawful for the railway administration to deviate from the line of railway shown on the deposited plans, provided that no such deviation shall extend beyond the limits of deviation shown on the said plans.
[ Repealed by 21 of 1970]
PART I
CONSTRUCTION AND WORKS
7. Authority of railway administration to execute all necessary work
(1) Subject to this Act and subject also as regards the parties thereto to any contract entered into between a railway administration and the owners or occupiers of or any other parties interested in any lands taken or used for the purposes of a railway and subject also in the case of a company to any contract between the Government and the company the railway administration may for the purpose of constructing the railway or the accommodation or other works connected therewith and notwithstanding anything in any other Act for the time being in force—
(a) make or construct in, upon, across, under or over any lands or any streets, hills, valleys, roads, railways or tramways on any rivers, canals, brooks, streams or other waters or any drains, water-pipes, gas-pipes, electric wires or posts such temporary or permanent inclined planes, arches, tunnels, culverts, embankments, aqueducts, bridges, roads, lines of railway, ways, passages, conduits, drains, piers, abutments, cuttings and fences as the railway administration thinks proper;
(b) alter the course of any rivers, brooks, streams or watercourses for the purpose of constructing and maintaining tunnels, bridges, passages or other works over or under them; and divert or alter as well temporarily as permanently the course of any rivers, brooks, streams or watercourses or any roads, streets, or ways; or raise or sink the level thereof in order the more conveniently to carry them over or under or by the side of the railway as the railway administration thinks proper;
(c) make drains or conduits into, through or under any lands adjoining the railway for the purpose of conveying water from or to the railway;
(d) erect and construct such houses, warehouses, offices and other buildings and such yards, stations, wharves, engines, machinery, apparatus and other works and conveniences as the railway administration thinks proper;
(e) alter, repair or discontinue such buildings, works and conveniences as aforesaid or any of them and substitute others in their stead; and
(f) do all other acts necessary for making, maintaining, altering or repairing and using the railway.
The exercise of the powers conferred on the railway administration by this section shall be subject to the control of the Minister.
Alteration of pipes, wires, and drain
(2) A railway administration may for the purpose of exercising the powers conferred upon it by this Act alter the position of any pipe for the supply of gas, water or compressed air or the position of any electric wire or of any drain not being a main drain:
Provided that—
(a) when the railway administration desires to alter the position of any such pipe, wire or drain it shall give reasonable notice of its intention to do so and of the time at which it will begin to do so to the local authority or company having control over the pipe, wire or drain, or when the pipe, wire or drain is not under the control of a local authority or company to the person under whose control the pipe, wire or drain is; and
(b) a local authority, company or person receiving notice under proviso (a) may send a person to superintend the work and the railway administration shall execute the work to the reasonable satisfaction of the person so sent and shall make arrangements for continuing during the execution of the work the supply of gas, water, compressed air or electricity or the maintenance of the drainage as the case may be.
8. Temporary entry upon land for repairing or preventing accident
(1) The Minister may authorize a railway administration in the case of any slip or other accident happening or being apprehended to any cutting, embankment or other work under the control of the railway administration to enter upon any lands adjoining its railway for the purpose of repairing or preventing the accident and to do all such works as may be necessary for the purpose.
(2) In the case of necessity a railway administration may enter upon the lands and do the works aforesaid without the previous sanction of the Minister but in such a case shall within seventy-two hours after such entry make a report to the Minister specifying the nature of the accident or apprehended accident and of the works necessary to be done and the power conferred on the railway administration by this subsection shall cease and determine if the Minister after considering the report considers that the exercise of the power is not necessary for the public safety.
9. Compensation to be made for lands taken or injuriously affected
(1) A railway administration shall do as little damage as possible in the exercise of the powers conferred by sections 7 and 8 and compensation shall be paid for any damage caused by the exercise thereof as soon as may be after such exercise.
(2) An action shall not lie to recover such compensation but in case of dispute the amount thereof shall be determined by the High Court and paid in accordance, as far as may be, with the procedure prescribed by sections 9 and 10 of the Lands Acquisition Act, and section 11 of that Act shall apply to the award of compensation.
10. Purchase of land and compensation by agreement
Nothing in this Act shall prevent the acquisition of lands for the purpose of a railway by agreement between the Government or the company as the case may be and the owners of such land or the settling by agreement of the amount of compensation to be paid in respect of lands injuriously affected by the exercise of the powers conferred by this Act.
(1) Every railway administration shall make and maintain such works for the accommodation of the owners and occupiers of lands adjoining the railway as the Minister may deem necessary.
(2) Subject to the other provisions of this Act the works deemed necessary under the preceding subsection shall be made during or immediately after the laying out or formation of the railway over the lands traversed thereby and in such manner as to cause as little damage or inconvenience as possible to persons interested in the lands or affected by the works.
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