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.
Perfect (if depressing) timing that I should be reading Palestinian Walks just as Israel launches all out war on Gaza. Although can you call what’s going on a war? When one side is armed with everything the US arms merchants can churn out while the other depends on wh...
Geoff Nicholson’s amusing and illuminating ramble through the history of walking starts with a useful quote: ‘Walking isn’t a lost art: one must, by some means, get to the garage.’ Having got that clarification out of the way Nicholson proceeds to walk around Los A...
The last two years I’ve kicked off the year with a walk in the Australian island state of Tasmania. In January 2008 I was walking on Maria Island. On 1 January 2007 I was part way down the Overland Track, the most popular long distance walk not only in Tasmania but in...
▲ Kangaroo Island kangaroos We finished 2008 and started 2009 with a visit to Kangaroo Island. Australia’s third largest island (after the mainland that is) lies south of Adelaide in the state of South Australia. It’s big (seven times as large as Singapore Isla...
New Year’s Eve, Hanson Bay on Kangaroo Island, South Australia. Walking along the beach I come across a computer monitor washed ashore. It’s been in the sea long enough to get encrusted in shells and weed, but remarkably the screen has not broken. A kid has turned...
Jogging past the Sun, part of the Melbourne Solar System Maureen and I sold a majority interest in Lonely Planet to BBC-Worldwide in late 2008, we’re still travelling a lot, we’re still working with Lonely Planet (I’ll be working on some new LP-TV documentaries i...
I’m running through my travel lists for 2008, we started with 10 interesting hotels, moved on to music highlights and then the views out the window from my favourite flights. Next it was cars & drives and then museums, galleries & exhibitions followed by phot...
I’m running through my travel lists for 2008, we started with 10 interesting hotels, moved on to my best music experiences and then the views out the window from my favourite flights. Next it was cars & drives and then museums, galleries & exhibitions followe...
I’m running through my travel lists for 2008, we started with 10 interesting hotels, moved on to my best music experiences and then the views out the window from my favourite flights. Next it was cars & drives and then museums, galleries & exhibitions followe...
I’m running through some travel lists for 2008. I’ve ticked off interesting hotels, my best music experiences, great flights, cars & drives and then museums, galleries & exhibitions. Today it's some favourite photographs of 2008. They're not necessarily my bes...
© Tony Wheeler’s Travels 2013