The study investigates how Transit Oriented Development - TOD structure affect accessibility in cities with the aim of establishing whether TOD patterns of urban expansion, in terms of network connectivity and inhabitants and job density, could be associated with measures of rail accessibility. In particular the paper addresses the following overarching questions: is TOD informed structure related to high accessibility by rail public transport? Which features of TOD structure affect accessibility? The paper provides a cross- comparative empirical analysis of six metropolitan areas in Europe, where the TOD degree is measured as the amount of urban development clustering along rail corridors and stations; this feature is then related to cumulative opportunity measures of accessibility to jobs and inhabitants. The research demonstrate that accessibility increases in cities that are developed around the rail network and with higher value of network connectivity, but no correlation is found between accessibility and mean density values. The research furthermore provide an application of the node-place model demonstrating its useful potential in accessibility planning processes
