2019 Massachusetts General Laws
Part I - Administration of the Government
Title XXII - Corporations
Chapter 160 - Railroads
Section 86 - Change of Direction

Section 86. A railroad corporation, having taken land for its railroad, may vary the direction of said railroad in the city or town where such land is situated; but it shall not locate any part thereof outside the limits of the route fixed under section twenty or twenty-one, without the written consent of the board of aldermen or selectmen, if it was fixed under section twenty, or of the department, if it was fixed under section twenty-one. If the board of aldermen or the selectmen, whose consent is required to such change of direction, shall neglect or refuse to give such consent within sixty days after the railroad company has in writing requested the same, the directors may petition the department for leave to make such change of direction.

The corporation may take land for such new location by eminent domain under chapter seventy-nine, and in so far as said new location as finally fixed shall differ from the location originally taken, the original location shall be held to be abandoned, and the rights of all persons interested in so much of the original location as is included within the abandoned part shall revive as if no taking had been made. Any person who has suffered loss or been put to expense by having his lands, buildings, rights or other property included in the original taking, but not included in the final taking, shall be entitled to have his damages therefor assessed under chapter seventy-nine, but the value to him of the use of the land between the time of said taking and the abandonment thereof shall be taken into consideration in determining the sum to which he is entitled.