The US government actually tried this explicitly. For a lot of land out west they gave every other parcel to the railroads for free, on the premise the railroad company would then make things boom, and they’d both profit.
It mostly didn’t work out that way, and it is a key reason a lot of the parks and native land reservations have a bunch of dumb isolated parcels that no one can get to.
It does seem it would make more sense near a city with some existing transit today you could add to. I do know the MTA has used real estate to subsidize a few projects like the Fulton St transit center, but less so for entire new lines.
It mostly didn’t work out that way, and it is a key reason a lot of the parks and native land reservations have a bunch of dumb isolated parcels that no one can get to.
It does seem it would make more sense near a city with some existing transit today you could add to. I do know the MTA has used real estate to subsidize a few projects like the Fulton St transit center, but less so for entire new lines.