N.Y. Railroad Law Section 236
Abandonment or change of route

  • new commissioners
  • their powers and proceedings
Any corporation heretofore organized or hereafter to be organized under this article, its successor or assigns, which shall have constructed or put in operation a railroad upon a part and not upon the whole of the route fixed, determined and located for such railroad by a board of commissioners, may at any time apply for authority to abandon any portion of the route upon which the railroad shall not have been theretofore constructed or shall not then be in operation, with or without a change and relocation of such portion, and with or without extension of the portion not abandoned, or of any part thereof. Such application shall be made by petition in writing, addressed by such corporation to the board of supervisors of the county in which such portion of the route so desired to be changed or abandoned shall be situated, which is not within the limits of any city, or if such route, or any part thereof, shall be within the limits of a city, to the mayor of the city, for the route or portion thereof within such city. Five commissioners may be appointed pursuant to such an application as hereinafter provided, who shall be residents of the county or city and who shall have full power as herein provided. When such application is made by a corporation heretofore organized such commissioners may be appointed within thirty days after presentation of the same by such board of supervisors, or, as the case may be, by such mayor. When such application is made by a corporation hereafter to be organized under this article, such board of supervisors, or, as the case may be, such mayor, may within thirty days after presentation of such application, indorse thereon their or his approval and direction that it may be presented to the supreme court in the manner provided in § 220 (Application for railroad)section two hundred and twenty of this article, and such court may thereupon appoint such commissioners. Within ten days after his appointment each commissioner so appointed shall take, subscribe and file the oath and give and file the bond prescribed by § 221 (Oath and bond of commissioners)section two hundred and twenty-one of this article; and if any one so appointed shall not comply with this requirement, he shall be deemed to have declined to accept such appointment, and to have made a vacancy which the appointing power shall fill by another appointment as herein provided. Within fifteen days after such appointments shall have been so made, the commissioners shall meet at some convenient place in such county and complete their organization as a board with appropriate officers. Such board shall have all the authority conferred by law upon commissioners appointed, or authorized to be appointed under this article. Before proceeding to hear the application of the corporation, the board shall give such public notice as it may deem most proper and effective of the time and place of the hearing. Within thirty days after completing their organization such board shall hear the application of the corporation, and all parties who may be interested therein, and within sixty days after their organization they shall determine whether any part of such route should be authorized to be abandoned, or should be changed and relocated with or without extension or extensions. If the board shall determine that no abandonment of any part of the route should be allowed, and that no change and relocation of any part thereof should be effected, and that no extension should be made, the board shall dismiss the application. If the board shall determine that an abandonment of any portion of the route should be allowed, or that any change therein or extension thereof should be made, the board shall proceed to authorize and require the same upon such conditions as to the board shall seem proper, and with or without extension of the remainder of the route or of any part thereof, by fixing, determining and locating the route or routes of the extension or extensions, if any, and by directing the abandonment of the part of the route theretofore located, but by the board allowed to be abandoned, if any, and by fixing, determining and relocating the part of the route theretofore located, but by the board changed, if any; and the board shall cause to be made in duplicate a survey and map of the route as so changed and fixed, determined and located. Neither such corporation nor any assign or successor thereof shall thereafter have any authority, by reason of anything done under this article, to operate or construct any railroad upon any portion of the route by the board so required to be abandoned. The board shall also fix and determine the time within which the railroad by it authorized and required upon any portion of the route so changed, shall be reconstructed and ready for operation. If the railroad on any portion of the route not by the board changed or allowed to be abandoned, shall not have been theretofore constructed and made ready for operation, the board may extend, and fix and determine anew the time within which such railroad shall be completed, but such extension of time shall not be for a longer period than that originally allowed by law for the completion thereof. If the board shall have determined that any portion of the route theretofore located should be allowed to be abandoned, with or without a change or relocation thereof or any part thereof, and with or without extension, or if the board shall have extended the time within which such railroad shall be completed, the board shall make a report in writing in accordance with the determination so made, describing the portion of the route, if any there be, as so fixed, determined and located anew, and the part, if any there be, of the route allowed to be abandoned, and stating the period of time, if any, by the board fixed and determined within which such corporation shall construct and complete the railroad theretofore authorized or by it authorized to be constructed, and prescribing that a failure by the corporation, its successors or assigns, to complete it within the time, if any, so limited, shall work a forfeiture to the supervisors of the county if no part of the road is within a city, or in any city, to such city, of the rights and franchises of such corporation with respect to that portion of the route so fixed, determined and located anew, and with respect to the then authorized extension or extensions, if any there be of said route, upon which a railroad shall not be constructed within the time so limited; but the time, if any, unavoidably consumed by the pendency of legal proceedings, shall not be deemed a part of any period of time limited in this article, and any recital of any forfeiture of any of the rights or franchises prescribed by any commissioners heretofore appointed, to be to the mayor, aldermen and commonalty of the city of New York, shall be as effectual for any and all purposes as if such forfeiture had been in terms recited to be to the board of supervisors of the county of New York. Such report shall be signed in duplicate by at least a majority of the then members of the board, and there shall be thereto annexed the survey and map as hereinbefore directed, showing the line and location of each and all the routes, with or without the extension or extensions, as fixed, determined and located, and showing also the parts or part, if any there shall be, of the route or routes as theretofore fixed, determined and located, but by the board allowed to be abandoned. Within ten days after so signing such report the board shall cause the same to be filed in the office of the secretary of state, and the duplicate thereof in the office of the clerk of the county wherein such railroad shall be located; and thereupon the corporation making such application, its successors or assigns, is and shall be authorized to construct, maintain and operate a steam railroad for the transportation of passengers, mail and freight, upon the route or routes so fixed, determined and located, and in said report described, but the construction or operation of a railroad upon any new location or selection of route is not and shall not be thus authorized except upon the condition that the consent of the owners of one-half in value of the property bounded on, and the consent also of the local authorities having control of that portion of a street or highway upon which it is proposed to construct or operate such railroad be first obtained, or in case the consent of such property owners cannot be obtained, that the determination of three commissioners, to be upon application appointed by the appellate division of the supreme court in the department in which such railroad is proposed to be constructed, be given after a hearing of all parties interested that such railroad ought to be constructed or operated, which determination, confirmed by the court, may be taken in lieu of the consent of the property owners. Such corporation is and the successors and assigns thereof shall be authorized to maintain and operate all the railroads and the appurtenances thereof by it or them theretofore constructed upon any portion of a route or routes which shall have been located by commissioners under this article, and to complete within the time in and by such report so extended, fixed and determined anew, and thereafter to maintain and operate, the railroad and the appurtenances, upon so much of the route or routes theretofore fixed, determined and located as shall not have been so authorized and required to be abandoned, and with the same rights and effect, in all respects, as if such extended period of time had been originally fixed and determined, and in the original certificate of incorporation of such corporation recited, for completing such railroad and putting it in operation. The other terms and conditions in and by such certificate mentioned and prescribed, except as the same are hereinbefore modified or may be modified by the board as hereinbefore authorized, shall apply to the railroad herein authorized to be constructed and operated upon the route or routes as so changed, fixed, determined and located, with the same force and effect as if such route or routes, as finally so changed and located, had been in and by such articles or certificates themselves prescribed. If a new location or extension of routes shall be fixed and determined by commissioners who shall have been appointed by the court pursuant to this section, they shall also ascertain and determine the aggregate pecuniary damages arising from the diminution of value of the property bounded on that portion of the street or highway upon the line of such new location or extension and of each parcel of real property so bounded, and their proceedings thereupon shall be conducted in the same manner and upon the like notice as the proceedings for that purpose before the commissioners specified in section two hundred and twenty-five and they shall make to the supreme court the report required by section two hundred and thirty-three, and thereupon the same proceedings shall be had as are provided for in such last named section. Each commissioner shall be paid for his services at the rate of ten dollars per day for each day of actual services as such commissioner, and all reasonable expenses incurred by him in or about any of the matters referred to such board, to be paid by the corporation making the application so heard and determined. No corporation shall be authorized under this section to extend, abandon or change the location of its route, or any part thereof, where the greater portion of the route or routes is or shall be in that portion of the city of New York south or west of Harlem river, or of any route or part thereof in the borough of Brooklyn or county of Kings, or to construct, extend, abandon or change the location of any railroad or route for a railroad over, under, through or across any street, avenues, place or lands south of One Hundred and Twenty-eighth street or west of Third avenue in that portion of the city of New York south or west of Harlem river, or where a railroad might not by law be constructed, or was not by law authorized to be by a board of commissioners located on the fifth day of June, eighteen hundred and eighty-eight.

Source: Section 236 — Abandonment or change of route; new commissioners; their powers and proceedings, https://www.­nysenate.­gov/legislation/laws/RRD/236 (updated Sep. 22, 2014; accessed Apr. 2, 2025).

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Accessed:
Apr. 2, 2025

Last modified:
Sep. 22, 2014

§ 236’s source at nysenate​.gov

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