N.Y. Railroad Law § 93-a: Maintenance and removal of highway-railroad crossing at grade

§ 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.