be set aside; but to reach that
conclusion, it may become necessary to consider certain relevant facts;
e.g., whether a new highway on which an underpass is to be constructed
is essential to the transportation needs of a community already well
served by a crossing equipped with devices which are adequate for safety
and convenience of a local traffic; whether the underpass is prescribed
as part of a national system of federal aid highways for the
furtherance of motor vehicle traffic, much of which is in direct
competition with the railroad; whether the increase in such traffic will
greatly decrease rail traffic and hence the revenue of the railroad;
whether the amount of taxes paid by the railroads of the State, part of
which is devoted to the upkeep of public highways used by motor
carriers, is disproportionately higher than the amount paid by motor
carriers.[241]

Compellable Services

The primary duty of a public utility being to serve on reasonable terms
all those who desire the service it renders, it follows that a company
cannot pick and choose and elect to serve only those portions of its
territory which it finds most profitable, leaving the remainder to get
along without the service which it alone is in a position to give.
Compelling a gas company to continue serving specified cities as long as
it continues to do business in other parts of the State entails
therefore no unconstitutional deprivation.[242] Likewise a railway may
be compelled to continue the service of a branch or part of a line
although the operation involves a loss.[243] But even though a utility,
as a condition of enjoyment of powers and privileges granted by the
State, is under a continuing obligation to provide reasonably adequate
service, and even though that obligation cannot be avoided merely
because performance occasions financial loss, yet if a company is at
liberty to surrender its franchise and discontinue operations, it cannot
be compelled to continue at a loss.[244]

Pursuant to the principle that the State may require railroads to
provide adequate facilities suitable for the convenience of the
communities served by them,[245] such carriers have been obligated to
establish stations at proper places for the convenience of patrons,[246]
to stop all their intrastate trains at county seats,[247] to run a
regular passenger train instead of a mixed passenger and freight
train,[248] to furnish passenger service on a branch line previousl