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.
It’s subtitled ‘A History of Fifty Years of Independence’ and what a depressing history it is. There are a handful of positive moments – like the switch from apartheid to majority rule in South Africa – but over and over again the story is the same. Independence arriv...
Spent a weekend in Rome shooting two commercials for the One World airline alliance – LP travel writers and TV presenters giving their suggestions for business travellers. In 48 hectic hours we seemed to find ourselves in all sorts of corners of Rome, but for me the h...
Cycling through Malawi on the Tour d’Afrique bicycle ride in March I kept on bumping in to a gentleman who took a serious dislike to Lonely Planet in the early 1980s – Dr Hastings Banda, Malawi’s ‘President for Life.’ Early editions of our Africa guide (and our pionee...
I love the signs you see when you’re travelling anywhere in the world and my bicycle ride through Africa last month turned up plenty of them. I rode the Iringa (Tanzania) to Lilongwe (Malawi) stage of the Tour d’Afrique cycle ride and here are a few of my favourites a...
Chitimba Beach to Lilongwe I’ve just ridden stage 5 of the Tour d’Afrique, a Cairo to Cape Town, four month, 12,000km bicycle ride the length of Africa. Two Lonely Planet teams are making the ride relay fashion. The first half of my ride took me 572 km from Iringa ...
Iringa to Chitimba Beach The Lonely Planet team before the Iringa start - me, Fiona Siseman, Rana Freedman and Martin Heng. Rana and Martin rode the last stage and decided to continue on this one as well. I’m half way through my Iringa (Tanzania) to Lilongwe (Ma...
I’m in Africa and about to start my stage of the Cairo to Cape Town Tour d’Afrique. I’ll be riding from Iringa in Tanzania to Lilongwe in Malawi. My Tour d’Afrique training came to a sudden stop when I headed off to Laos for the month of February, although I did a ...
Laos are on the 100 Waterfalls, the amazing Chom Ong Caves, the Sainyaburi Elephant Festival and Back to Luang Prabang. My final Laotian excursion was a three day walk into the Nam Ha NPA (National Protected Area) with the TV crew from Lonely Planet’s Roads Less ...
My other blogs from Laos are on the 100 Waterfalls, the Sainyaburi Elephant Festival and Back to Luang Prabang. It’s always exciting visiting somewhere that’s not yet on tourist itineraries, particularly somewhere that hasn’t even made it into a Lonely Planet guide...
The village of Nong Khiaw on the Nam Ou River Tourism in Laos is still so new that exciting new destinations and activities are still to be found. Our Laos guidebook is going to featuring new additions and suggestions for many future editions. I’m in Laos workin...
© Tony Wheeler’s Travels 2013