pending the appeal, in excess of that authorized by such final decision, shall be promptly refunded by the company to the parties entitled thereto, in such manner, and through such methods of distribution, as may be prescribed by the commission, or by law.  All such appeals affecting rates, charges or classifications of traffic, shall have precedence upon the docket of the appellate court, and shall be heard and disposed of promptly by the court, irrespective of its place of session, next after the habeas corpus, and Commonwealth’s cases already on the docket of the court.

(a) In no case of appeal from the commission shall any new or additional evidence be introduced in the appellate court, but the chairman of the commission, under the seal of the commission, shall certify to the appellate court all the facts upon which the action appealed from was based and which may be essential for the proper decision of the appeal, together with such of the evidence introduced before, or considered by, the commission as may be selected, specified and required to be certified, by any party in interest, as well as such other evidence, so introduced or considered, as the commission may deem proper to certify.  The commission shall, whenever an appeal is taken therefrom, file with the record of the case, and as a part thereof, a written statement of the reasons upon which the action appealed from was based, and such statement shall be lead and considered by the appellate court, upon disposing of the appeal.  The appellate court shall have jurisdiction, on such appeal, to consider and determine the reasonableness and justness of the action of the commission appealed from, as well as any other matter arising under such appeal provided, however, that the action of the commission appealed from shall be regarded as prima facie just, reasonable and correct, but the court may, when it deems necessary, in the interest of justice, demand to the commission any case pending on appeal, and require the same to be further investigated by the commission, and reported upon to the court (together with a certificate of such additional evidence as may be tendered before the commission by any party in interest), before the appeal is finally decided.

(b) Whenever the court, upon appeal, shall reverse an order of the commission affecting the rates, charges or the classification of traffic of any transportation or transmission company, it shall, at the same time, substitute therefor such order as in its opinion, the commission should have made at the time of entering the order appealed from, otherwise the reversal order shall not be valid.  Such substituted order shall have the same force and effect (and none other) as if it had been entered by the commission at the time the original order appealed from was entered.  The right of the commission to prescribe and enforce rates, charges, classifications, rules and regulations, affecting any or all actions of the commission theretofore entered by it and appealed from, but based upon circumstances or conditions different from those existing at the time the order appealed from was made, shall not be suspended or impaired by reason of the pendency of such appeal; but no order of the commission, prescribing or altering such rates, charges, classifications, rules or regulations, shall be retroactive.