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[quote user="CSSHEGEWISCH"] Question:  How much in property taxes are paid by the airports vs. railroad stations and related terminal properties?[/quote] Most airports don't pay any property taxes, although they may be required to pay a transfer fee that emulates a property tax or utility fee, depending upon the governance agreement of the sponsoring government.  One would have to go through every airport financial statement to make a determination. Amtrak owns only 46 of the 525 stations that it serves.  It is responsible for the maintenance of 181 other stations.  The other stations, for the most part, are owned by the communities that they serve.  Amtrak pays a nominal rental in some of these stations; in others, e.g. Deming and Lordsburg, New Mexico, it pays nothing, since the stations are simply platforms with a shelter.     Title to the major stations that are owned by Amtrak reside with a wholly or partially owned subsidiary, e.g. Chicago Union Station and Penn Station Leasing, LLC; its 99.9% interest in Washington Terminal Company, and its 99% interest in 30th Street Limited, L.P.   Pursuant to the provisions of Title 49 of the United States Code, section 24-301, Amtrak is exempt from all state and local taxes, including income and franchise taxes that are directly levied against the company.  Not only does this mean that it does not pay property taxes on its stations and related terminal properties, it does not even pay sales taxes.  Amtrak not only receives federal and state subsidies to cover its operating losses, as well as an exemption from all state and local taxes, it gets a variety of other subsidies.  Here are a couple of examples.  In 2002 it received a $100 million loan from the Federal Railroad Administration for certain qualifying capital expenditures.  The interest rate was 1.18% per annum, which was considerably below the market rate even for municipal financing.  In 2003 the Pennsylvania Economic Development Financing Authority issued $50 million of tax free bonds to build a parking garage at 30th Street Station in Philadelphia.  As part of the deal, Amtrak pledged the revenues, as well as certain other assets associated with the garage and air rights, to guarantee the bonds, with any excess profits accruing to Amtrak.  Upon retirement of the Bonds, Amtrak gets ownership of the garage, which presumably will be an earning asset far into the future.    Amtrak operates approximately 21,000 passenger route miles.  Approximately 97 per cent of these miles are owned by freight and commuter railroads.  The freight railroads pay property taxes, including inventory taxes, income taxes, sales taxes, etc.  The commuter railroads are owned, for the most part, by state or local authorities that operate similar to airport authorities.  They pay no local property taxes, although they may pay sales taxes, and they may be required to transfer some or all of any enterprise fund surpluses to a general fund, although I doubt it.  Based on the provisions of Title 49, however, it appears that the freight railroads, as well as the commuter roads, are prohibited from passing these taxes through to Amtrak.  All forms of public transport in the U.S. receive some subsidy; that is to say, they get monies from non-users, generally taxpayers, although in the case of motorists, because there are so many of them, the majority of them pay the general transfer subsidies.  However, a supporter of Amtrak, as well as other forms of public passenger rail, would be well advised not to raise the subsidy issue.  The subsidy per passenger or passenger mile for Amtrak, as well as most forms of passenger rail, dwarfs the subsidies for motorists and airline passengers.
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