Managing significant population growth is the central driver for the development of metropolitan strategies for the major capital cities in Australia, particularly Melbourne and Sydney, cities of 5 million people. Outward expansion has been a central policy position for their planning, but a recognition of higher infrastructure costs has shifted the planning focus to urban renewal, specifically, transit-oriented development. The issue of improved accessibility to goods, services and jobs—economic, social and community assets—however, is currently not explicitly considered. This study seeks to understand if accessibility to economic, social and community assets can make a positive contribution to planning for urban renewal. The approach focuses on accessibility to those assets within a walking catchment of train stations on the rail networks of Melbourne and Sydney in the context of accessibility within a ‘30-min city’. The study findings suggest that the location of transit-oriented development and required infrastructure investments (e.g. schools) is of consequence, if accessibility to economic, social and community assets is to be optimised. Thus, the study highlights that the planning for transit-oriented development and associated infrastructure investments can be reimagined as ‘linear transit cities’, a conceptual framework to inform the preparation of metropolitan strategies.