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.
I blogged recently about the 10,000 worthless Indian rupees I’d found myself stuck with after a recent visit to India. After the Indian government demonetized their 1000 and 500 rupee notes – their two biggest banknotes, worth US$14.60 and US$7.30, respectively...
The press has been full of stories about the US Navy research ‘underwater glider’ (although it was often referred to as an ‘underwater drone’) which the Chinese snatched out of the water and refused – for awhile at least – to hand back. Donald Trump announced it was a...
I’ve been rather slow in posting on my travels this year, I’ll try and catch up before the end of 2016, starting with a recent week in Sudan. I started and finished in Khartoum, the capital city, and travelled around North Sudan in between. ▲ Getting a visa can be ...
There’s 10,000 useless Indian rupees, about US$150 in real money. ▼ I wouldn’t normally have any Indian currency around. Euros or US dollars fine, I’m back in both regions regularly and anyway they can be used in lots of places other than the euro zone or the U...
I flew from London to San Francisco on Tuesday 8 November, so I’d be there for the US election. I’ll always be disappointed that I wasn’t in Berlin when the wall came down (9 November 1989) and perhaps this would be another of those world changing events and it would ...
I wish I’d been in Berlin on 9 November 1989 to see the wall come down. I finally got there on 21 October 1991, nearly two years later, and totally because a collection of my German Berlin friends had all insisted I had to see Berlin before it was changed forever. At ...
▲ Tata Nano in Ratnagiri The Tata Nano launched in India in 2008 with the aim of being the world’s most affordable car. The tiny two cylinder 624 cc vehicle was going to get people off their family motorcycles (typically carrying husband, wife and several children)...
This is my second Hampi report, following the earlier account of a visit to the Chandramauleshwara Temple. I only had two days in Hampi, there’s so much to see another day or two would have worked very well. ▲ In the Royal Enclosure the imposing Mahnavami Dibba pla...
I’ve reported on my visit to Global Heritage Fund’s Chandramauleshwara Temple at Hampi and how pleased I was to finally get to this wonderful temple-studded abandoned city in southern India. So here’s a random selection of images from my recent visit. I’ll post some m...
I seriously liked Mohsin Hamid’s novel How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia and although I’ve not read his other two novels – The Reluctant Fundamentalist and Moth Smoke – I have just read Discontent & Its Civilizations, a collection of ‘Dispatches from Lahore, N...
© Tony Wheeler’s Travels 2013