Despite wide-spread policy aspirations for integrating high-density housing with public transport in cities, what is achieved in practice is rarely measured. Furthermore, equity in public transport service provision has been given little attention in areas specific to high-density housing. This working paper tracks the development of high-density housing – namely apartments – against public transport service provision on an annual basis over a 19-year period (2003-04 to 2021-22) in Melbourne, Australia. A ‘needs-gap’ analysis is also undertaken to measure equity in public transport service provision in areas of apartment housing. Here, both horizontal equity, using public transport service supply per person, and vertical equity, using an index of socio-economic advantage and disadvantage, are measured.

The research findings have implications for the development of future transport and land use policies. First, the provision of public transport services needs to be better aligned with, and more responsive to, the development of apartment housing. Here, continued monitoring of new apartment housing development and levels of public transport service provision is essential. Second, greater efforts need to be directed towards addressing inequities in public transport service provision at a local area and route/line level. Again, continued monitoring of equity in public transport service provision over time provides an important tool for understanding the extent to which this is being achieved.