This would make sense. If the real estate could be owned by the operators of the subway, the subway could capture that value created* and distribute it to upkee

This would make sense. If the real estate could be owned by the operators of the subway, the subway could capture that value created* and distribute it to upkeep of the whole system. Since this is not the case in NYC and Chicago - private individuals / the city owns the property adjacent to transit, there needs to be some other way to capture that value. Enter a sane, necessary taxation / subsidization mechanism. * The value is real. Property adjacent to transit was insulated from the 2008 crash: https://usa.streetsblog.org/2013/03/22/study-homes-near-transit-were-insulated-from-the-housing-crash/ https://usa.streetsblog.org/2013/03/22/study-homes-near-tran...