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.
A bit north of Montpellier and Avignon, a bit south of Clermont-Ferrand and Lyon, the gorges of the Tarn River are in a wonderful region of the south of France and let’s be honest, they are truly spectacular. I was number eight in a group of eight canoeists to spend t...
◄ Atlas & Zanzibar Bookshop – Come to Gent and speak for the Atlas & Zanzibar Bookshop Frank van Os suggested. Quite why Gent would have the best travel bookshop in Belgium I have no idea, but it looked like an interesting town so I didn’t need much persuadi...
My three recent European blogs – Turin in Italy, Lugano in Switzerland, Paris in … now which country is that again? – were the final stepping stones on a 45 day trip from Melbourne in Australia to London in … now which country is that again? Once I’d finally arrived i...
So how do I get back to London after my USI (Università della Svizzera italiana) course at Lugano in Switzerland? Train to Milan and out to Malpensa Airport, fly to London is the quickest route. Instead I take the train to Zurich and then the high speed TGV Lyria in 4...
▲ I Love Lugano On the waterfront at Lugano, the lakeside city in the heart of the Italian region of Switzerland. Supposedly 63% speak German, 23% French and 8% Italian which does not add up to 100%. I spent a week in May teaching a tourism course with the USI (Uni...
◄ Salone Internazionale del Libro – Turin Book Festival Alice through the looking glass – attraverso lo specchio in Italian – was the theme of the event and I was there with EDT – Edizioni di Torino – the publishers of Italian language editions of Lonely Planet. On...
I arrived in the East Bay – disembarking the Coast Starlight from Seattle in Emeryville and taking the bus across to San Francisco – as another step on my Melbourne to London trek. Maureen and I lived in the East Bay (in Berkeley, ‘the only city in America with its ow...
▲Amtrak Coast Starlight to Los Angeles I’m travelling from Melbourne to London the long way and that includes the daily Amtrak train from Seattle to Oakland down the US West Coast. It continues on to Los Angeles, but my 800mile journey takes 23 hours 30 minutes, th...
I often insist I’m not a list ticker, someone intent on claiming they’ve been to every country on earth although I do keep track of where I’ve been. I am, however, much closer to having put a footprint on every one of the USA’s 50 states. After my visit to Montana in ...
I came through Seattle three times on my great Melboune to London trek. The first time was just a transit stop, my ship docked at the end of my Japan-Alaska cruise and I continued straight on to Vancouver and Vancouver Island in Canada. An Amtrak train brought me back...
© Tony Wheeler’s Travels 2013