§ 248. Pending actions and proceedings. No action or proceeding pending on March first, nineteen hundred seventy-one brought by or against the public service commission or the department of public service, and pertaining to or connected with the functions, powers, obligations and duties transferred pursuant to this article, shall be affected by this article, but the same may be prosecuted or defended in the name of the department or the commissioner. In all such actions and proceedings, the department or the commissioner, upon application to the court, shall be substituted as a party.