I know that freight railroads pay heavy property taxes on track to the states they operate in, but does Amtrak also have to pay state/local/whatever taxes on track and stations, or does it get any special waiver because its owned by the government?
http://uscode.house.gov/download/pls/49C243.txt It's dry and mind numbing and refers to other laws that refer to other laws and so on, but I'm thinking no, they're tax exempt in most cases. But isn't your nearest Amtrak Station (Albany) actually owned by a RR, or did that finally change? I know it looks a lot better then the last time I visited it. When I was there I think P&W or UP owned it and Amtrak rented a section. It was also a bit sketchy.
