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.
In December I had two lost bag events in the past 12 months. Now it’s three. This time it was Emirates which left Maureen’s bags behind in Dubai (I was already in London), they had plenty of time to transfer the bags from one flight to the next so I guess the excuse w...
The 26th of January is to Australia as the ‘Fourth of July’ is to the USA or the ‘Quatorze Juillet’ (the 14th July) is to France. It’s a public holiday which celebrates the country’s origins. For five years I’ve made a little trip around the state of Victoria each Aus...
A stroll down the beach with good food and a glass of wine every night, what’s not to like? My 2008 travels (and walking) started with a bunch of friends on a small island off the coast of Tasmania, the not-quite-so-small island state of Australia. The Maria Island Wa...
A short list contender for the 2007 Mann Booker prize Mr Pip is set in Bougainville, an island which is politically part of Papua New Guinea, but culturally and ethnically is much more closely related to the Solomon Islands. It’s yet another reminder of how the coloni...
Don’t we all love brands, especially new ones? And who would stoop to wearing Versace, Armani or Dolce & Gabbana when you could be sporting a colourful new shirt from ‘Stolen Pig.’ I found it (and bought it) in a departure lounge shop at Fiji’s Nadi Airport.
My 2007 reading list featured a number of books on Africa and that huge and troubled region in the centre, the once-upon-a-time Belgian Congo, later Zaire, the Democratic Republic of Congo or Congo-Zaire. I’ve been thinking about it as a contender for a place in Bad L...
About 40km south-west of Savusavu on the Fijian island of Vanua Levu the reef surrounding the beautiful island of Namenalala has been turned into the Namena Marine Protected Area and as a result has become a Mecca for visiting scuba divers. A decade of protection f...
For the second time in six months I arrived and my bag didn’t. Last June it was an Air Canada flight into Vancouver. I was there several hours before the flight’s departure, but perhaps Air Canada can be exonerated. I was on standby and only found I could get on the f...
We’ve had eco-tourism, cultural tourism, adventure tourism and luxury tourism. Now there’s dark tourism: visiting sites of death, disaster or depravity. ◄ mural on the wall of the former US Embassy in Tehran Nor...
Some governments have two departments, one which spends money and energy and effort to attract tourists. And one which spends even more money and energy and effort to discourage them. India is a fine example of this tradition, the Indian Tourist Office tries to attr...
© Tony Wheeler’s Travels 2013