45 U.S.C. § 661
Section 661 · Definitions
Amended 2 times on record
Applied in 6 court decisions — leading case Blanchette v. Connecticut General Insurance Corporations (1974)
Most recently applied in Chicago Milwaukee St Paul and Pacific Railroad Company Chicago Milwaukee St Paul and Pacific Railroad Company (February 1983)
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year.Markers show enactment, consequential amendments, and circuit splits over this section — watch for a citation surge after a change or a disagreement. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
For the purposes of this chapter—
(1) “Secretary” means the Secretary of Transportation.
(2) “Board” means the Surface Transportation Board.
(3) “Railroad” means any rail carrier subject to part A of subtitle IV of title 49.
(4) “Certificate” means certificates issued by trustees of a railroad pursuant to subsection 77(c)(3) of the Bankruptcy Act, as amended.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
References in Text
Section 77(c)(3) of the Bankruptcy Act, referred to in par. (4), was classified to section 205(c)(3) of former Title 11, Bankruptcy. The Bankruptcy Act (act July 1, 1898, ch. 541, 30 Stat. 544, as amended) was repealed effective Oct. 1, 1979, by Pub. L. 95–598, §§401(a), 402(a), Nov. 6, 1978, 92 Stat. 2682, section 101 of which enacted revised Title 11. For current provisions relating to railroad reorganization, see subchapter IV (§1161 et seq.) of chapter 11 of Title 11.
Amendments
1995—Par. (2). Pub. L. 104–88, §325(1)(A), added par. (2) and struck out former par. (2) which read as follows: “ ‘Commission’ means the Interstate Commerce Commission.”
Par. (3). Pub. L. 104–88, §325(1)(B), substituted “rail carrier subject to part A of subtitle IV of title 49” for “common carrier by railroad subject to part I of the Interstate Commerce Act (49 U.S.C. 1–27)”.
Effective Date of 1995 Amendment
Amendment by Pub. L. 104–88 effective Jan. 1, 1996, see section 2 of Pub. L. 104–88, set out as an Effective Date note under section 701 of Title 49, Transportation.
Short Title
Section 1 of Pub. L. 91–663 provided: “That this Act [enacting this chapter] may be cited as the ‘Emergency Rail Services Act of 1970’.”