§ 20. Board of transportation to determine necessity for railroads;
routes; plan; consents; streets excepted. a. The board of
transportation upon its own motion may proceed, from time to time, to
consider and determine whether it is for the interest of the public and
the city that a railroad should be established therein, or whether it is
for the interest of the public and such city that any railroad which is
to be or is owned by such city by virtue of the provisions of this
chapter or any other law, should be extended beyond its previously
established routes, or that any such routes should be modified or
changed, or that any of such previously established methods of
transportation should be replaced by other more convenient and
serviceable methods. Upon the request in writing of the board of
estimate at any time, such board of transportation shall proceed
forthwith to consider and determine such questions, and in each case
such board of transportation shall conduct such an inquest and
investigation as may be deemed necessary in the premises. If, after any
such consideration and inquest, such board of transportation shall
determine that a railroad, in addition to any already existing,
authorized or proposed, or any extension, modification or change of the
route or method of transportation of any previously established railroad
that may be or is owned by such city by virtue of the provisions of any
law, are necessary for the interest of the public and such city, it
shall proceed to determine and establish the route thereof and the
general plan of construction. Such general plan shall show the general
mode of operation and contain such details as to manner of construction
as may be necessary to show the extent to which any street is to be
encroached upon and the property abutting thereon affected. Such board
of transportation, from time to time, may locate the route of such
railroad over, upon, under, through and across any streets, including
blocks between streets, or partly over, under, upon, through and across
any streets and partly through blocks between streets. The consent of
the owners of one-half or more in value of the property bounded on and
the consent also of the board of estimate shall be first obtained, or in
case the consent of such property owners cannot be obtained, the
determination of the appellate division of the supreme court, given
after due hearing of all parties interested, shall be taken in lieu of
the consent of such property owners as provided in section twenty-one of
this chapter.

b. No public park nor any lands or places, lawfully set apart for, or
occupied by, any public building of any city or county, or of the state,
or of the United States, nor those portions of Grand, Classon, Franklin,
Bedford avenues and Downing street in the borough of Brooklyn, city of
New York, lying between the southerly line of Lexington avenue and
northerly line of Atlantic avenue, nor that portion of the borough of
Brooklyn lying between and circumscribed by such avenues and streets
exclusive of that portion of the streets in the foregoing territory upon
or through which elevated railroads were in operation on the
thirty-first day of January, eighteen hundred ninety-one; nor that
portion of Classon avenue in such borough lying between the northerly
line of Lexington avenue and southerly line of Park avenue, nor that
portion of Washington avenue in such borough lying between Park and
Atlantic avenues, nor that portion of Nostrand avenue in such borough
lying northerly of the northerly line of Eastern parkway, nor Debevoise
place, Irving place and Lefferts place, Lee avenue, Waverly avenue, St.
James place, Cambridge place, Vanderbilt avenue and Clinton avenue in
such borough of Brooklyn, nor that portion of the city of Buffalo lying
between Michigan and Main streets, nor any part of Fifth avenue, in the
borough of Manhattan, city of New York, nor that portion of any street
which, on the thirty-first day of January, eighteen hundred ninety-one
was actually occupied by any elevated railroad structure, shall be
occupied by any corporation for the purpose of constructing a railroad
in or upon any of such streets, or upon or along either of such excepted
streets. It shall be lawful for such board of transportation to locate
the route of a rapid transit railroad by tunnel under any such streets
and to locate the route of any railroad to be built, under this chapter,
across any of the streets which, on the thirty-first day of January,
eighteen hundred ninety-one, were occupied by an elevated railroad
structure in the city of New York, or across any of the streets excepted
in this chapter at any point at which, in its discretion, the board of
transportation may deem necessary in the location of any route, or
under, or under and along, any of such streets which, on such date, were
so occupied or so excepted in this chapter. Nothing in this chapter
shall authorize the construction of an elevated railroad on Broadway
south of Thirty-third street, nor on Madison avenue in the borough of
Manhattan, city of New York. It shall not be lawful to grant, use or
occupy, for the purposes of an elevated railroad, except for the purpose
of crossing the same, any portion of the following named streets in the
borough of Manhattan, city of New York, that is to say: Second avenue,
below Twenty-third street; Fourteenth street, between the easterly line
or side of Seventh avenue, and the westerly side of Fourth avenue; nor
Eleventh street, west of Seventh avenue, nor any part of Bank street;
Nassau street; Printing House square, south of Frankfort street; Park
row, south of Tryon row; Broad street and Wall street.

c. The provisions of this section, with reference to any railroad for
which routes and a general plan had been adopted by the board of rapid
transit railroad commissioners of the city before the twenty-third day
of April, nineteen hundred, and for the municipal construction of which
a contract had been made by the city before such date, shall be deemed
to have been in full force from before the time when the routes and
general plan for such railroad were so adopted by the board of rapid
transit railroad commissioners.

d. Upon the adoption of any route and general plan of construction of
any railroad, under this chapter, the board of transportation shall
prepare and file in the office of the secretary of the board of
estimate, at or prior to the time of submission of such route and
general plan of construction to the board of estimate and the mayor for
approval, a statement signed by at least two members of the board of
transportation and countersigned by its chief engineer, showing in
detail the estimated cost of construction and equipment of such railroad
and the estimated time required for the completion of such construction
and equipment, together with an estimate by years of the prospective
results of the operation of such railroad over a term of ten years from
the estimated date of the beginning of operation thereof.