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 day that begins with goat's testicles in your hand can't be bad,' surmised Tad. We'd started the day with a visit to the Nizwa souq where, in the goat souq, a steady procession of goats circle between an inner and outer ring of potential purchasers. When a buyer...
The sultan's new mega-dhow was under construction at the Sur dhow yards. He already seemed to have plenty of ships... the harbour at Muscat featured vessels ranging from the royal dhow to what looked like the royal cargo/passenger vessel. So perhaps this new bigger an...
See it soon... the old rough-and-ready coast road to Sur, almost at the south-eastern end of the Arabian Peninsula, is disappearing. Already long stretches have been replaced by smooth tarmac and there's lots of construction underway. Meanwhile the villages and towns ...
Muscat is a spectacularly sprawling town. To the west the Hajar Mountains drop down to the Batinah Plains before they reach the sea. From Muscat and further east the mountains tumble straight into the sea. As a result Muscat is a series of enclaves dotted amongst the ...
The coast road is dual-lane highway, almost continually built up and with moderately heavy traffic, some of it moving way faster than the 120 kmph speed limit. Pull off the highway into a town and suddenly the calendar winds back to markets and a seemingly inexhaustib...
Before dinner on Saturday night we'd gone down to the beach in the centre of town where an energetic football game was being fought out on the narrow strip of sand between sea and road. Dinner had been notable for the almost 100% female occupancy of the hotel restaura...
'No this is not Omani immigration,' the young man at the roadside office announced, 'that's a few km further down the road. But has your passport been stamped for leaving the UAE?' 'No,' I replied, 'we haven't seen any place for that.' 'That's at the Hatta Fort ...
I'm on the road in the United Arab Emirates and Oman on the south-east corner of the Arabian Peninsula. Maureen's riding shotgun and American writer Tad Friend, who is putting together a story about Lonely Planet for an April issue of New Yorker magazine, is coming al...
Carney Brothers, an auto-repair shop just round the corner from our motel, immediately inspires confidence. Monday to Friday they fix cars and Saturday-Sunday they prepare dragsters so they obviously know what they’re about. Our misfiring is quickly diagnosed as bu...
Somewhat heart in mouth I start the recalcitrant beast to go and fuel it up while Maureen and Kieran finish packing. Terrible, it starts reluctantly, pops and bangs, won’t run smoothly. A hundred yards from the motel I begin to think we are going to be stuck and have ...
© Tony Wheeler’s Travels 2013