The department may, on petition of a company or of any interested party, after notice and a public hearing, determine the reasonable conditions which shall govern the interchange of traffic and cars between companies, and may, wherever it is reasonable and consistent with the public interest, order such company to receive and convey over its tracks the cars of another such company at such times and over such routes and upon such terms, including reasonable compensation, as the department may prescribe; provided, that a company shall have control of and responsibility for the management and operation of all cars while upon its railway as fully as if it owned them. The department may also recommend such joint rates, fares and charges as are consistent with the provisions of any special charter of any company, specifying at the same time and in every instance the part of the joint rate, fare or charge to which each company affected thereby shall be entitled, and may make such other recommendations as seem appropriate to the circumstances of each particular case.
Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 161, § 47