This paper investigates the implications of a transit-oriented intensification scenario for public transport and the distribution of potential development densities in Melbourne. Recent research has looked at two models of transit-oriented intensification aimed at minimising the use of greenfield land on the metropolitan fringe – along existing road-based transit corridors and within activity centres, railway stations and tram corridors. Both models share the same conceptual basis of tightly constraining the spatial distribution of projected population growth to the land directly associated with Melbourne’s public transport system. Their virtues have been promoted as affecting only a very small proportion of the urbanised area, requiring only modest increases in heights, expanding areas of urban vitality and potentially accommodating significantly larger population growth than currently projected without further encroaching on greenfield land at the urban fringe.