You'd be suprised how many people commute more than an hour by car. The prospect of having affordable housing with more job opportunities will certainly bring in more people.

Yeah, while I'm a huge advocate for an American Shinkansen, there's really 4 zones of America for train speeds. East of the Appalachians its fast and easy and rail already works easy. West of them but east of the Mississippi, you're gonna need high speed rail, but it'll be somewhat similar to Europe. Between the Mississippi and the west coast, you're gonna need high speed rail and quite a bit of patience. And on the west coast, you'll hit up small cities, but honestly it'd be a great second high speed line after the New York-Chicago