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 the morning we go nowhere, when I look under the hood in daylight I decide it’s probably wise to get the cooling problem fixed. My amateur diagnosis is a leaking heater hose and it turns out to be correct. It takes a couple of hours, but only $46.54, to have new ho...
My hangover isn’t as bad as it should be and after packing our freshly washed clothes (thank God for friends’ washing machines) we set off for El Paso. Leaving Tucson we drive by the Davis-Monthan air force base where surplus military aircraft are mothballed, just in ...
We get slightly sidetracked en route to Tucson by a factory outlet shopping centre by the freeway. America is still the world’s great bargain centre for clothes and shoes and new Levis all round seem like a good idea. In Tucson we stay with Lonely Planet author Rob Ra...
For the second time the Caddy won’t start. I think it might be a result of parking it on steep cambers but this time I know how to handle it. A short backtrack takes us to Walnut Canyon National Monument, another series of Sinagua ruins, neatly situated around the wal...
Caddy homage started early today when a Scotsman staying at our hotel pronounced it ‘a cracker’. With another tankful of premium on board we headed east along the South Rim Drive and out of the park. Sandwiches at Cameron and a detour past the Sinagua Indian ruins ...
Someone’s fallen over the canyon edge and the walk down into the canyon has been closed for the day Maureen announced. Oh no, I said. April fool! So we did walk, down the Kaibab Trail to Cedar Ridge and about an hour beyond. It’s listed by the park authorities a...
I think I’d better drop that line about things not working out as expected. Today would probably have worked out just as expected if I hadn’t asked the best way to the I-93 as we were leaving the hotel. Perhaps the advice to take the I-25 towards LA and cut across to ...
We went nowhere. Las Vegas was such a big hit with the kids a rest day was officially declared and we watched more volcano eruptions and pirate battles, did our laundry, bought a case of oil (let’s be honest, it burns it) and caught a show in the evening. Vegas sho...
From Stove Pipe Wells we meandered through Death Valley with the short climb up Zabriskie Point, drive through 20 Mule Team Canyon and Artist’s Canyon, walk through Golden Canyon, lunch at Furnace Creek and make the obligatory stop at the lowest point in the USA, Bad ...
Once again things don’t exactly go as planned. We’ll just scoot south through Death Vallley and end up, late in the day, at Las Vegas, was the initial proposition. But then we heard about Bodie and decided to make a short backtrack to this ghost town. &nb...
© Tony Wheeler’s Travels 2013