N.Y. R.R. Law § 170
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.
N.Y. R.R. Law § 170