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’m travelling around Laos working on a program for the new LPTV series ‘Lonely Planet’s Roads Less Travelled’. After kicking off in Luang Prabang I took a bus south to Sainyaburi to catch the annual Elephant Festival. ‘Well he was hopeless, wasn’t he?’ she complai...
Thirty Five years ago Maureen and I made a brief trip through Laos working on the very first edition of Southeast Asia on a Shoestring. Soon after the country disappeared from view as the American supported Royalists crumbled and the Pathet Lao took over. Laos disappe...
The Planet Wheeler website is up and running. Maureen and I sold a majority interest in Lonely Planet to BBC-Worldwide in late 2007, we’re still travelling a lot, we’re still working with Lonely Planet (I’ll be working on some new LP-TV documentaries in 2009), but we ...
I’m about to head off to Laos to work on a new Lonely Planet TV program in our forthcoming ‘Lonely Planet’s Roads Less Travelled’ series. So, naturally, I’m reading up on Laos books and, surprisingly, there isn’t a great deal. If you can find a copy of Murray Laurence...
Yes it’s a shoe statue in Tikrit (Saddam Hussein’s hometown) to honour shoe tossing Iraqi journalist Muntadar al-Zeidi. And yes, that is a Bush growing out of the shoe, click here for the full BBC story on the statue which was unveiled on Thursday 29 January. &...
Winding down a road to the north coast of Kangaroo Island a few weeks ago I came across this house name, the title of a favourite book. Arthur Ransome’s Swallows & Amazons was the last book my parents ever read to me and by the end I was becoming thoroughly fed ...
I’ve got three bicycles and only one of them is coming with me to Africa for my leg of the Tour d’Afrique in March. That’s my Wheeler 5900 ZX mountain bike. I bought it in 1997, it was made in Taiwan, 24 speed and I’m running it on road tyres, although I may ta...
Christophe Rochus, en route to losing to Rafael Nadal January in Melbourne, the one month of the year when the city’s famously changeable weather settles down for two weeks of absolute uniformity. It’s always hot-hot-hot for tennis at the Australian Open. The ten...
J Maarten Troost’s recently published book on China, Lost on Planet China, seems to follow the Paul Theroux school of travel writing, the grumpier I am the better the experience. By the end I was a little fed up with his constant complaints about pollution, greedy ta...
Pelicans perching at the bayside, Pretty Beach We started 2009 in a very luxurious place (the Southern Ocean Lodge) close to a couple of spectacularly rugged national parks on South Australia’s Kangaroo Island. And we’ve continued the pattern with a stay at the e...
© Tony Wheeler’s Travels 2013