§ 93-a. Maintenance and removal of highway-railroad crossing at grade.
The responsibility of a railroad corporation to maintain and keep in
repair highway-railroad crossings at grade as provided by law shall not
terminate upon the abandonment of the railroad or a portion thereof, but
such responsibility with respect to state highways shall continue,
unless otherwise agreed upon by the railroad corporation and the state,
and with respect to highways other than state highways, shall continue
unless otherwise agreed upon by the governing body, or its designee, of
the municipality having jurisdiction over the highway. Such
responsibility shall continue until the crossing at grade has been
removed and the highway pavement restored by the railroad corporation
and/or pursuant to agreement with the railroad corporation by the state
or municipality having jurisdiction over the highway, to such usable
condition as the commissioner or the municipality having jurisdiction
over the highway, respectively, shall deem reasonable. Such
responsibility to maintain and remove may be transferred with the
approval of the commissioner, and shall thereafter pass to the
transferee of the railroad corporation or successor in interest to the
abandoned railroad right-of-way. If such approval is not obtained, the
responsibility for maintenance and removal shall continue with the
railroad. Upon failure to remove abandoned railroad facilities at a
highway-railroad crossing at grade within one year after the date of the
abandonment by the railroad corporation, the municipality having
jurisdiction over the highway may petition the commissioner for an order
to compel removal. The commissioner upon receipt of such a petition, or
on its own motion with respect to state highways, shall serve notice
upon the party responsible for the removal of the highway-railroad
crossing at grade that a hearing, at a specified date, will be held to
determine whether the highway-railroad crossing at grade should be
removed. After conclusion of such hearings, the commissioner shall, by
order, determine whether it is in the public interest to require removal
of the crossing at grade. If the commissioner determines that the
crossing at grade should be removed, the order shall direct such removal
and describe the manner of removal and the party responsible for such
removal and may establish a penalty for non-compliance with such order
at a sum equalling the actual cost, considering salvage, of such removal
to be paid to the state with respect to state highways or to the
municipality having jurisdiction over the highway with respect to
highways other than state highways. Any funds so paid shall be utilized
to effect such removal. Any person aggrieved by such decision, and who
was a party to said proceeding, may within sixty days after the service
of such decision appeal therefrom to the appellate division of the
supreme court in the department in which such crossing is located, and
to the court of appeals, in the same manner and with like effect as is
provided in the case of appeals from an order of the supreme court.