N.Y. Railroad Law § 101

§ 101. Consent of commissioner of transportation in certain cases. No\nstreet surface railroad shall be allowed to lay its tracks at grade\nacross the tracks or roadbed of any railroad operated by locomotive\nsteam power at any point where there are three or more tracks of the\nsteam road proposed to be crossed, which tracks have been constructed\nand in operation at least two years, unless the written consent of the\ncommissioner of transportation be first obtained for such crossing at\ngrade. But this section shall not affect the operation of the preceding\nsection in any suit or proceeding pending on the twenty-ninth day of\nMarch, eighteen hundred and ninety-three, nor any renewals of said\npending suit or proceeding brought for any cause.\n