By the time Tony co-founded Lonely Planet Publications in 1973, he already had the travel bug. And ever since, travel and discovery have been at the heart of his life and career.
Melbourne has a new subway line – the Metro Tunnel – running through five new stations and currently having a soft opening, before the schedule launches full tilt on 1 February 2026. The new Parkville Station will probably be the most useful new station, since it’s at the University of Melbourne which badly needed a handy Metro station.
▲ The Town Hall Station
The two new central city stations might look slightly redundant since the Town Hall Station is only a couple of hundred metres from Flinders St Station and the State Library Station is right beside the Melbourne Central Station. In fact you might find it easier to enter the State Library Station from Melbourne Central rather than from its own entrance. The Metro Tunnel line, however, runs in a different direction than the other lines through Flinders St and Melbourne Central.
Unfortunately to use the new line you still need the horrible old Myki Card. Transport Victoria have announced that they are introducing ‘tap and go’ technology to Melbourne. Tomorrow? No, they are testing it in 2026 and at some point in the future you’ll actually be able to use it. But didn’t they start testing it in 2023 at some stations? Well yes they did, but clearly three years of testing wasn’t enough, there’s more testing to be rolled out in 2026
◄ My hated Myki Card
Hasn’t anybody asked them about this before? Well yes, for one person I asked Transport Victoria why we couldn’t use contactless cards in Melbourne when London introduced the technology in 2014. So that’s 10 years ago.
And I did get an answer, ‘we’re working on it and hope to introduce it soon.’ Which in Melbourne seems to be in 10 years time. So for over 10 years I’ve been able to use my Australian ANZ credit card to pay for public transport in London, England. But not in Melbourne, Australia. Absurd isn’t it?
Once upon a time Melbourne was a regular ‘most liveable city in the world’ title holder. How could you be a ‘most liveable city’ and at the same time operate the world’s most-visitor-unfriendly-travel-card? I suggested that in 2013 and 13 years later my opinion hasn’t changed. Never mind, the new Metro Tunnel Line reportedly took lots of lessons from London’s very popular Elizabeth Line. In London I often use the Elizabeth Line even if it means travelling a bit further because it’s so fast and convenient. Perhaps Melbourne can also learn from London how to get rid of the Myki Card.
▲ The Elizabeth Line at Bond St.in London
Since it opened in 2022 the Elizabeth Line quickly became the busiest railway line in the UK although technically it’s not part of the London Underground network. It runs out to Heathrow Airport – but so does the Piccadilly Line – and even further to Reading. It’s popular and has won architectural awards as well as being so busy. Check my August 2024 posting about riding the London Tube.
Day 1 of my London-Paris bike ride took me from London down to Seaford on the south coast of England. Day 2 was the short ride to Newhaven followed by the ferry to Dieppe and a 50km cruise along the wonderful Avenue Verte cycle track to Forge les Eaux. Click here for ...
I’ve bought a new bicycle (a Specialized Sirrus, flat bar road bike, 30 speed, some carbon fibre, very nice) so why not break it in by riding to Paris? The idea that I could just roll out of my front door and end up at the Eiffel Tower was too good to miss. ▲ C...
What’s the most commonly stolen car? Usually older cars (easier to steal) and popular cars (more of them to steal). So in the US Hondas and Toyotas get stolen most often, in the UK it’s an assortment of Fords and Vauxhalls, in Australia Holdens and Fords. But a recent...
Two books on flying and airlines – I’ve just read Aloft, a collection of pieces by William Langewiesche which originally appeared in Atlantic Monthly or Vanity Fair. They include several of his classic analyses of aviation disasters – including the Colombia space shut...
Maureen and I made a quick trip to Sweden, staying with friends with a summer house outside Stockholm near the town of Nyköping. The Baltic Sea coast north and south of Stockholm is a maze of island, 24,000 of them in the Stockholm Archipelago. So what do you do on ...
I’ve been Boris Biking around London. The Barclays Cycle Hire scheme (to use its correct name) launched on 30 July. With 5000 bicycles scattered around 315 docking stations – when it opened – it’s the second biggest bicycle share system in the world. The Paris Velib p...
‘Skiing, Sand and Shopping in the World’s Weirdest City’ is the subtitle and it’s a good summation. I’m overdue for another visit to Dubai, I’ve not been back for a few years, but I’ve been there quite a few times since my first visit in 1999. I’ve been intrigued by D...
I’ve quoted that Joan Didion line before, that ‘the most beautiful things I had ever seen had all been seen from airplanes.’ And flying Melbourne-Singapore in a Singapore Airlines Airbus A380 a couple of weeks ago I was reminded how true that can be. Crossing Aust...
I’ve got a number of Robert Powell paintings hanging in my house, like this one of Preah Khan dancers at Angkor Wat which hangs over my bed. So a visit to Robert’s house on the Thai island of Ko Samui was a good excuse for a stopover between Melbourne and London ...
Driving along the west coast of the Thai island of Ko Samui I came upon a bird singing contest. There’s a rectangular area with four clothesline-like wires run down it. Hung from the wires are bird cages, in groups of 4 by 4, so 16 in a group. There were 7 groups in...
© Tony Wheeler’s Travels 2013