Harvard Business Review:
High Speed Rail Versus Austerity
High Speed Rail Versus Austerity
Philadelphia is 101 miles from Manhattan, and the current travel time between the two cities is about 75 minutes on the Acela, a bit longer by regional rail.* Suppose that Amtrak could achieve the speed of China's bullet trains and move at 175 miles per hour. The one way commute time would decline to 35 minutes. Common sense suggests that home prices in Philadelphia would soar from their current median of $140,000 as businesses and households would come to view the city as a new Manhattan suburb, and the demand to live and work there would sharply increase. Philadelphia would benefit from the population increase and all the amenities that private enterprise would build to support it.
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Effect 1: a capital gain windfall for land owners in second and third tier cities
Effect 2: dispersed population
Effect 3: private investment in amenities to support the growing populations of the lower tier cities
Effect 4: lower carbons emissions
Effect 5: more efficient use of space for private enterprise