Could High-Speed Rail Ease California’s Housing Crisis? See Japan

Always controversial, the California High-Speed Rail (CHSR) project, which promises to whisk passengers from Los Angeles to the Bay Area in about 2 hours and 40 minutes at speeds that hit 220 mph, has experienced cost overruns and delays since it was conceived a decade ago. Bullet-train boosters are hoping that another, less-examined impact of the project is due for attention: the possibility that the rail network could eventually help ease the housing affordability crisis in the cities at either end of the line. For one, Japan is far more densely populated than California, with multiple cities that developed alongside its high-speed rail system.

Source: www.citylab.com