§ 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.