Mining, manufacturing, and quarrying corporations may construct and operate to, and from, their mines, furnaces, mills, factories, quarries, or other works, railways, tramways, canals, tunnels, underground passages, or roads whereby connections may be made to, and from, their principal places of business, mines, furnaces, mills, quarries, or other works and any public highways, turnpike, macadamized, plank, or other graded road, railroad, or navigable waters, or to or with their mines, ore beds, coking, or cooling grounds, timberlands, canals, or aqueducts to or from their mills, factories, furnaces, quarries, other works, or any water or watercourses, and may transport as common carriers freight and passengers on any railroad, other roads, canals, or aqueducts constructed or purchased by them, taking reasonable compensation therefor.
Ala. Code § 10A-21-2.14 (1975)