This article aims to evaluate the impact of a metropolitan railway line, twenty years subsequent to its implantation, on the immediately surrounding area in the city of Recife, in the State of Pernambuco, Brazil, and to demonstrate the influence of access to transport, using the value of urban land as an indicator of this. In terms of theory, this research deals with the urban economy, in particular the value of land, choices regarding the location of residential areas and the relation between transport and land use. The research is based on the hedonic price method, which associates the price of a good with a set of explanatory variables which could be expected to influence its value. The data show that use and occupation of this land have not intensified and that there has been no rise in its value. This can be seen from the population growth in the areas, which is below the city average, and also from comparison with the value of land along other transport arteries in the city. The following results of the mathematical model are worthy of note : a fall in the value of land of 16% at distances of up to 500m from metro stations ; as distance from the centre (CBD) increases, land values decrease at a rate of 11% per km, reaching values on the periphery one third of those in the centre ; an increase of 8.3% for a locality up to 500m from a major intersection. It is also noted that the socio-economic status of the population (HDI) and the level of violent crime in the neighborhood have a powerful influence on the value of land. The effects on the value of land demonstrated in the model are shown to be limited to a rise in value in the proximity of metro stations. There is, therefore, a need for the benefits to be spread more evenly and for strategies to be drawn up to allow these benefits to be enjoyed in the broadest and most equitable manner possible. Investment in the metro should seek to obtain maximum economic advantage for families, the city, and transport operators alike.