There is a detailed explanation somewhere in the 80 or 90,000 pages of the Internal Revenue Code; all you have to do is find it.
A better solution would have been to set up a GoFundMe account and have the railroad make the payments that way, because last I heard GoFundMe amounts are not taxable.
If the IRS can waive deadlines for tax payers in areas suffering a natural disaster, and the President can transfer student debt from the debtors to tax payers, then the government can waive taxes on the payments from the railroad.