Any railroad company may bring its petition in writing to the Commissioner of Transportation, alleging that public safety requires the elimination of the crossing of its railroad at grade by a highway or highways through the removal of such line of railroad between any two contiguous stations or any two points between which there is no station so as to coincide with some other line of railroad owned and operated by such company between the same two points or stations, and praying that the same may be ordered; whereupon the commissioner shall appoint a time and place for hearing the petition and shall give such notice thereof as he judges reasonable to such company and the municipalities in which such crossing and such two points or stations are situated. If, upon such hearing, it appears to the commissioner that proper and adequate service will be afforded to the public in the transportation of passengers and freight within the towns in which such line of railroad to be moved is located, he shall order the removal, and such railroad company shall thereupon have the right to remove its line of railroad to such other line and to abandon such portion of its railroad as may be removed to such other line and its franchise thereto.