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.
Flying between Europe and Australia I regularly gaze down at the Maldives and on one occasion, five years ago, I even blogged about identifying the islands I was flying over from 35,000 feet. So it was time I paid a Maldives visit although I don’t think I’m going t...
I had a ride in Melbourne with the Vintage Cycle Club on their annual city cruise. I was riding an 1891 Overman Victor sprung frame ‘safety bicycle’ borrowed from the Farren Collection’s wonderful assortment of old bicycles. ‘Safety’ means it has equal-sized wheels an...
▲ This year so far I’ve been in Melbourne, Sydney, New York City and London. Passing through Gloucester Rd tube station on the District Line this art work pops up beside the line – it’s lettie eggsyrub by Heather Phiillipson, part of the Art on the Underground project...
A brief visit to New York and early one morning, walking from West to East Manhattan, to East 56th St, I spot this very tall, very skinny skyscraper. It’s 111 West 57th St, one of the current craze for very tall, very skinny skyscrapers sprouting up around the city. T...
Walking was the order of the day on a recent trip to Sydney with a bunch of friends. The city has great walks, harbour side and ocean side. ◄ We started with the 10km harbour side walk from Spit Bridge (Mosman on the North Shore) to Manly, which is on Sydney ...
My island travels for Australia’s Islands, my book to be published by the National Library of Australia in October 2019 took me to a number of wonderful islands off the Western Australia coast in late 2018. I drove up to Dirk Hartog Island, took a lightplane out to th...
Although I’m now 10 years away from Lonely Planet they’re still nice to me and ask me to lend my expertise (whatever there is of it!) to projects like the annual Best in Travel and to assorted new publications. ▲ Creg-ny-Baa corner on the Isle of Man TT Mountain Ci...
I’m disappointed if I don’t visit a few ‘new’ countries every year and this year the total was nine out of the 20-or-so countries I got to. Well perhaps two of them – Macedonia and Kosovo from ‘Former Yugoslavia’ – shouldn’t have counted since I’d been to them, or ...
I’m disappointed if my travels don’t take me to some ‘new’ (for me) countries each year and this year was certainly a good one in that department with nine previously unvisited locations - that's the next blog. Some great aerial views also make me happy and there have...
▲ My recent trek to four Western Australian islands (or island groups) also took me to Steep Point, the most westerly point on the Australian mainland. If you haven’t got a helicopter or a suitable boat you’ll need a four-wheel drive to get there, but that completed m...
© Tony Wheeler’s Travels 2013