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.
I've been posting some 'end of 2009' lists in an assortment of categories, starting with Aerial Views, then with Hotels (good and bad), Other Transport, Music, Cars & Drives, Galleries & Museums, Books and Animals & Wildlife. Today it's my photographs of 2...
I've been posting some 'end of 2009' lists in an assortment of categories, starting with Aerial Views, then with Hotels (good and bad), Other Transport, Music, Cars & Drives, Galleries & Museums and Books. Today it's my Animals & Wildlife of 2009. There...
If there’s a new year’s resolution I make every year, and then fail to keep, it’s to read more books. Too many other things come in the way. The bedside pile of books which I buy, intending to get around to one day, simply gets taller. Plus there are a certain number ...
I've been posting some 'end of 2009' lists in an assortment of categories, starting with Aerial Views, then with Hotels (good and bad), Other Transport, Music, Cars & Drives and today it's Galleries & Museums. One of the pleasures of life in any big city is...
The year’s two most interesting cars? The ones I would happily find a space for in my garage? An electric Tesla sports car which I had a short drive in while I was in Los Angeles. And one I didn’t even drive, but I certainly enjoyed being taken for a quick dawn spin a...
There’s been a lot of good music during 2009 including some of the best rock concerts ever, starting with Neil Young and Leonard Cohen in Melbourne, moving on to Van Morrison at the Albert Hall in London and finally catching Al Stewart in Newcastle, also in England. ...
During the year I flew lots of places and drove lots of places, but I also used a wide variety of other forms of transport. In my Fun & Fare Evasion blog I tell the story of being caught travelling without a ticket on the Budapest subway. I also ponder – in Sydney...
The worst hotel of the year? McAlpine House in Broome, Western Australia. In 2009 I stayed in about 70 different hotels in 16 countries. Many of them were strictly one night stands although there were a fair number of two or three nighters, the longest visit was six n...
I love the ‘view out the window’ and take lots of photographs when I fly places but we don’t often get a good aerial look at the airport. Flying in to San Jose, Costa Rica the flight in front of us was a bit slow getting off the runway and our pilot had to abandon th...
Made a little pilgrimage during my recent New England visit – to Lowell, Massachusetts, birthplace of On the Road author Jack Kerouac. He’s buried there as well. To make it a proper writers’ trip I went along with Rolf Potts (Vagabonding) and Jeff Greenwald (Size ...
© Tony Wheeler’s Travels 2013