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.
Terrific. Peter Hessler has written the best book I’ve read on contemporary everyday China. Depending on where you see Country Driving it might be subtitled Three Journeys Across a Changing China or A Journey through China from Farm to Factory. Peter, a long term Chin...
My trip to Margaret River for their Readers & Writers Festival kicked off at Albany with its whaling station. Then I made two stops to check Western Australia’s big trees, there are plenty of them in the south-west corner of the state. Check our Perth & Wester...
▲ sperm whale skeleton Why have I never got down to Western Australia’s Southwest? Over the years I’ve driven the Gunbarrel Highway, travelled the opposite direction along the Tanami Track from the Northern Territory, followed the Gibb River Road across the ...
Have I maligned poor Nimbin? It’s an Australian counter-cultural capital in the north of New South Wales and when I put together a ‘worst in travel’ list for Doug Lansky’s Titanic Awards I accused Nimbin of having turned out the worst pizza I’d ever tried (and failed)...
I’ve been a Geoff Dyer fan for some time (is there a better book about being young and footloose in Paris than Paris Trance?) and this one pushes all the Dyer buttons. Riffing on the big issues while indulging in sex, drugs and rock ‘n roll, going off on yet another w...
Quite the funniest – and surprisingly funniest – travel book I’ve read this year. The review line on the cover – ‘Excellent Book’ Daily Telegraph – makes it sound utterly bland and boring, but the byline that it’s about ...
I read to Hellholes and back, Chuck Thompson’s account of the ‘art of extreme tourism,’ principally because he goes to Congo and I read most things that come up about that country. Chuck decides not to follow Conrad’s miserable haul up the Congo River, but instead end...
I’ve always liked destinations where there’s a certain make or model of car which somehow typifies the place. Old ‘Yank tanks’ (aka ‘lead sleds’) in Cuba, Land-Rovers on the Falkland Islands or original Minis (not the new ones, nice though they are) in England. &nb...
Need a page turner while you’re travelling around India? Then try one of Chetan Bhagat’s books. His best selling novels are a fine introduction to contemporary India and the life of young middle class Indians. People leading the charge into software, computers and cal...
Brazilians certainly believe in eating – and drinking – my recent Brazil visit included plenty of both. Vento Haragano is one São Paulo’s biggest (and priciest) churrascaria places, this is the Argentinian meat, meat and more meat diet. A veritable stampede of ...
© Tony Wheeler’s Travels 2013