§ 170. Street surface railroads; general provisions. The provisions
of this article shall apply to every corporation which, under the
provisions thereof, or of any other law, has constructed or shall
construct or operate, or has been or shall be organized to construct or
operate, a street surface railroad, or any extension or extensions,
branch or branches thereof, for public use in the conveyance of persons
and property for compensation, upon and along any street, avenue, road,
highway, or private property, in any city, town or village, or in any
two or more civil divisions of the state, and every such corporation
must comply with the provisions of this article. Any street surface
railroad corporation, at any time proposing to extend its road or to
construct branches thereof, may, from time to time, make and file in
each of the offices in which its certificate of incorporation is filed,
a statement of the name and description of the streets, roads, avenues,
highways and private property in or upon which it is proposed to
construct, maintain or operate such extensions or branches. Upon filing
any such statement and upon complying with the conditions set forth in
section one hundred and seventy-one of this chapter, every such
corporation shall have the power and privilege to construct, extend,
operate and maintain such road, extensions or branches, upon and along
the streets, avenues, roads, highways and private property named and
described in its certificate of incorporation or in such statement.
Every such corporation, before constructing any part of its road upon or
through any private property described in its articles of association or
certificate of incorporation or statement, and before instituting any
proceeding for the acquisition of any real property, shall make a map
and profile of the route adopted by it upon or through any private
property, which map and profile shall be certified by the president and
engineer of the company, or a majority of its directors, and shall be
filed in the office of the clerk of the county in which the road is to
be constructed, and all provisions of section sixteen of this chapter so
far as applicable shall apply to the route so located. If any such
street surface railroad company is unable to agree for the purchase of
any such real property, or of any right or easement therein required for
the purpose of its railroad, or if the owner thereof shall be incapable
of selling the same, or if, after diligent search and inquiry, the name
and residence of such owner cannot be ascertained, it shall have the
right to acquire title thereto in the manner and by the proceedings
provided by the eminent domain procedure law. Nothing in this section
shall be deemed to authorize a street railroad corporation whose
railroad is mainly, upon, along, above or below streets and highways to
acquire real property within a city, but nothing in this section shall
apply to or affect rapid transit railways constructed, maintained or
operated under any rapid transit act.