Section 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.