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.
◄ Some of 2015’s best aerial views were from a Beechcraft Super King Air which a bunch of us chartered and flew across Northern Australia. We started at dawn from Melbourne’s Moorabbin Airport, as a group of hot air balloons drifted in from their morning flight over t...
Back in my Lonely Planet days I always found it exciting when one of the company’s foreign language partners produced a Lonely Planet book which had never been published in English. Even though they looked recognisably LP. The 50 Best Towns in China is definitely in t...
◄ Carrying a phone you’re always taking photos you wouldn’t normally grab, if you’re not in the habit of carrying a camera constantly. Like this baby shoe I spotted on my morning riverside jog in Melbourne. Clearly some sweet little brat had taken the shoe off and hur...
Numerous things I’ve run into through the year: ◄ At the beginning of the year, the Melbourne Arts Centre’s ‘Homes’ project. They turned out thousands of little wooden ‘homes’ and people (lots of school kids) decorated them and distributed them all over. I rather l...
◄ An early morning Ryanair 737 flight from London to Turin and as usual the Alps look terrific. Remember the Winter Olympics were held in Turin in 2006, it’s not far from the Fiat motor city to the white stuff. Absolutely the best out-the-window glimpse o...
What is it about hairdressers and punning names? I came across this classic – Barber Streisand – in London’s Exmouth Market recently. Although next door Bagman & Robin seems to be following the punning lead. And last night it was Ms Streisand again, this time i...
What is it about street furniture, signs in particular, that seems to almost magnetically attract vehicles off the road and into disastrous collisions? Well disastrous for the signposts at least. These ‘accidents’ seem to build up to a crescendo just before Christmas,...
Lots of it as usual including, for Maureen, a spell as the chair of the jury for an international chamber music competition in Melbourne. Perhaps fortunately I was overseas at the time …. ▲Catching Van Morrisson on his 70th birthday performing Astral Weeks – includ...
◄ Jason deCaires Taylor, is noted for his submerged sculptures, in particular at Cancun in Mexico where he has a group of figures for scuba divers to admire. A London short term art pop up featured four horses with oil well ‘horse heads’ for heads. They stood, with th...
Usually around this time of year a bird nests in my house’s courtyard, it’s been blackbirds (which are not a native Australian bird) these past couple of years. They’re often nesting in October and sometimes raise more than one brood. One year I noted the chicks’ depa...
© Tony Wheeler’s Travels 2013