No franchise, nor any right to or under any franchise, to own or operate a railroad shall be assigned, transferred or leased, nor shall any contract or agreement with reference to, or affecting, any such franchise or right be valid or of any force or effect whatever, unless the assignment, transfer, lease, contract or agreement shall have been approved by the commissioner following notice and public hearing. When the commissioner has given his approval of such an assignment or transfer, or of a contract or agreement relating thereto, and upon the execution of appropriate instruments of assignment or transfer, the assignee or transferee thereunder shall, with the approval of the commissioner, be vested with all the rights and franchises of the assignor or transferor and subject to all its duties and obligations except such duties and obligations as the commissioner may after hearing and by order find are no longer reasonably required in the public interest. Any holder of the capital stock of such assignor or transferor corporation who shall feel aggrieved by any such transaction shall be entitled to the benefits of all statutes regulating, protecting and determining the rights of a dissenting stockholder of a railroad in the case of a lease or union with another railroad; and the rights of any stockholder of such corporation dissenting from such assignment, transfer, contract or agreement approved as aforesaid shall be regulated, protected and determined by such statutes.