If a railroad corporation requires land for any of the purposes specified in section seventy-eight other than for the location of its railroad not more than five rods wide as provided in the three preceding sections, and is unable to obtain it by agreement with the owner, it may apply to the department, which, after notice to the owner and a hearing, may prescribe the limits within which it may be taken without his permission; and the corporation may, within one year after the decree, take such property by eminent domain under chapter seventy-nine.
Massachusetts Legal Code