Government Railways Act 1904

The Authority may, from time to time, make by‑laws upon the following subjects —

regulating the mode in which, and speed at which, engines and other rolling‑stock are to be propelled or moved;

regulating the use of carriages by passengers, and the number of passengers to be carried in each carriage or compartment;

imposing conditions upon which passengers’ luggage will be carried;

regulating the loading and unloading of wagons and the weight they may carry;

regulating the weight to be carried in any sack, box, bale, or other package, and the size thereof, and imposing penal rates of charges for excess in respect of weight or size of package;

regulating the receipt, carriage, delivery of and other dealings with goods, the storing of the same, and the checking of luggage;

preventing any person affected with any infectious or contagious disease from travelling by railway, except under prescribed conditions;

prohibiting the carriage or conveyance of diseased or infected animals, or of animals, plants, fruit, or vegetable produce suspected of disease, except subject to prescribed conditions;

prohibiting the carriage of second‑hand fruit‑cases, or any cases or packages that may reasonably be supposed to have contained fruit, unless such cases are disinfected in accordance with the provisions of any Acts and regulations relating thereto;

preventing the smoking of tobacco or any other substance, and the committing of nuisances;

regulating the traffic on roads and bridges used both for ordinary and railway traffic;

regulating the public or private traffic of persons, vehicles, or goods on roads, bridges, and subways across, over, or under any railway;

preventing the trespass of persons or animals on any railway or any part thereof;

regulating the maintenance, usage, opening, and closing of all gates and slip‑panels, cattle‑stops, and fences;

regulating the manner, times, and places in and at which tickets of any kind shall be purchased by, issued to, used by, and delivered up by passengers;

facilitating and regulating the insurance of persons travelling on the lines of railway, by any accident insurance company now or hereafter to be formed;

regulating the mode in which, and the times within which claims for loss, non‑delivery of, or damage to goods, including passengers’ luggage, or in respect of any other cause of action relating to either goods including passengers’ luggage or passengers, shall be made;

regulating the terms on which private sidings may be constructed and used, the rent thereof, and the manner in which the same may be worked;

regulating the hire, use, and detention of any locomotives or rolling‑stock at such sidings, and the liability of persons hiring, using, or detaining the same for damage done thereto, or for the destruction or detention thereof;

providing for the grant of licences to porters and to the drivers of vehicles plying for hire within the precincts of any railway; prescribing the conditions of such licences (including the payment in each instance of a licence fee), and also of the transfer or forfeiture thereof; making similar provision for the licensing of vehicles plying for hire as aforesaid (including the payment in each instance of a licence fee), and the conditions subject to which such licences shall be held and may be transferred or forfeited; and providing also for the exclusion of any such licensed driver or vehicle from railway premises until there is room for his vehicle, and for the exclusion of all unlicensed porters or drivers and vehicles plying for hire as aforesaid;

regulating the admission to railway stations, offices, platforms, and premises of passengers going to or leaving the trains, or of persons having business at the station offices; limiting the time during which passengers and other persons may remain on railway stations, offices, platforms, and premises; excluding from stations, offices, platforms, and railway premises all persons not observing the by‑laws, or not having business thereat; imposing such fees or tolls as it deems fit in order to give effect to this subsection;

providing for areas on land which is or is reputed to be held or used in connection with or for the purpose of a railway, or which belongs to or is under the care, control, and management of the Authority, to be set aside as vehicle parking or standing areas for use by —

officers and servants of the Department or Authority; or

persons on railway business; or

the public generally; or

such persons or vehicles or classes of persons or classes of vehicles as may be prescribed;

generally regulating the control, supervision and management of parking or standing areas set aside under by‑laws made pursuant to paragraph (v) and in particular —

prescribing charges payable by any person using, or in respect of any vehicle occupying a parking or standing area and exempting any person or vehicle or class of person or class of vehicle from paying all or any of those charges; and

prescribing conditions under which and the period or periods of time during which a parking or standing area may be used or occupied; and

providing for the protection of parking and standing areas and all equipment pertaining to them against misuse, damage, interference or attempted interference by any person; and

regulating the parking and standing of vehicles in any parking or standing area and prohibiting any person from parking or standing any vehicle in a parking or standing area otherwise than in accordance with the by‑laws; and

exempting any person or vehicle or class of person or class of vehicle from complying with any by‑law made pursuant to this paragraph prohibiting or restricting the parking or standing of vehicles generally or otherwise; and

prescribing the method and the means by which any charges or penalties prescribed by any by‑law made pursuant to this paragraph may or shall be paid and collected, or recovered; and

prescribing the circumstances under which an officer or servant of the Department or Authority may remove a vehicle, or cause it to be removed, from a parking or standing area to a specified place, prescribing his further powers in relation thereto, prescribing the scale of charges to be paid to recover the vehicle from that place, and authorising the Authority to hold the vehicle until the prescribed charges are paid; and

prescribing, in respect of an alleged offence against any by‑law made pursuant to this paragraph, the circumstances under which the owner of the vehicle is deemed to be the driver or person in charge of the vehicle at the time of the alleged offence; and

prescribing the period of time within which a person, after being served with notice of an offence alleged to have been committed by him against any by‑law made pursuant to this paragraph, may or shall pay to the Authority the penalty or modified penalty prescribed for that offence, and the period within which a penalty is payable after receipt of notice; and

prescribing the method of notifying a person alleged to have committed an offence against any by‑law made pursuant to this paragraph of that alleged offence and how it may or shall be dealt with and prohibiting the removal by any person other than the driver of a vehicle in respect of which an offence against such a by‑law is alleged to have been committed of any notice relating to the offence affixed to the vehicle or left in or on the vehicle by an officer or servant of the Department or Authority; and

prescribing a modified penalty or modified penalties payable to the Authority by a person or one of a class of persons who does not contest an allegation that he committed any specified offence against a by‑law made pursuant to this paragraph and providing that the due payment of a modified penalty is a defence to a charge of the offence in respect of which that modified penalty was paid;

subject to subsection (2), for authorising persons appointed by the Authority to remove into custody any vehicle left on a railway for a period in excess of 7 days, for authorising persons appointed by the Authority to use such force as is necessary to enter a vehicle so left for the purpose of removing it, for providing for the custody of vehicles so removed, for prescribing a scale of charges to be paid by the owner of such vehicle in order to recover the vehicle from custody, for providing that where such a vehicle is not recovered from custody within a period of 2 months the Authority may sell or otherwise dispose of the vehicle, for providing that the proceeds of the sale of such a vehicle may be applied towards recouping the costs of removal, custody and sale of the vehicle, for providing that the costs of the removal, custody and disposal of such a vehicle (less the proceeds of its sale, if any) may be recovered from the owner of the vehicle in a court of competent jurisdiction, and for providing that where the proceeds of the sale of such vehicle exceed the costs of its removal, custody and sale the amount of the excess shall be paid to the owner of the vehicle, or where the identity or whereabouts of the owner is unknown, credited to the account referred to in the Public Transport Authority Act 2003 section 32;

regulating the use of refreshment rooms and restaurant cars under the management and control of the Authority;

regulating the sale, supply, and consumption of liquor on trains or other property under the management or control of the Authority and restricting, to the extent specified in the by‑laws, the taking of liquor onto, or the possession of liquor on, any train, or a train specified in the by‑laws, that is under such management or control;

for organizing, classifying, and paying the staff employed on government railways, and prescribing the terms of employment, or in any other manner affecting the duties of such employees, provided that such by‑laws or regulations are in no way inconsistent with the terms of an award of the Western Australian Industrial Relations Commission or any industrial agreement that may be in force;

prescribing the powers, authorities and duties of, and the form of authority to be furnished to, special constables appointed under this Act, and imposing obligations upon persons for the purpose of facilitating the exercise by special constables of such powers;

for the control, supervision and guidance of persons engaged in the management, maintenance and control of the government railways, and for prescribing the form and manner of signing and executing documents to be made or issued under this Act and for the promulgation of all acts, matters and things necessary, expedient or convenient for carrying into operation or for facilitating the operation of this Act;

prescribing offences and modified penalties for the purposes of section 53A;

generally for regulating the traffic on railways, and the conduct of all persons employed on or about the same or travelling or being thereon.

The by‑laws may authorise any railway officer or any other person to do all such things, and to issue all such instructions and regulations, as may be deemed advisable in respect of any such subjects, and may provide that any act or thing shall be done with the approval or to the satisfaction of a specified person or class of persons and may confer a discretionary authority.

Despite subsection (1)(f), while regulations for the checking of luggage are in force, no liability shall be incurred by Her Majesty or the Authority in respect of luggage which has not been duly checked.

By‑laws made pursuant to subsection (1)(x) shall provide that any vehicle removed pursuant to by‑laws made under that paragraph shall not be sold unless and until —

enquiries have been made as to the ownership of the vehicle; and

the owner has been notified in the prescribed manner of the Authority’s intention to sell the vehicle and where the owner cannot be so notified notice of the Authority’s intention to sell the vehicle has been published in a daily newspaper circulating throughout the State.