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.
Three mornings a week in Melbourne I ride about 6km along this cycle path to the gym. Yesterday I came past this point on my way to the gym, but when I came back after my 30 minute session someone had parked right in the middle of the path.
Tim Low’s popular book Where Song Began tells the story of Australia’s big, noisy, aggressive and colourful birds. ‘And how they changed the world’ according to the sub-title. I’m no bird expert or even real bird enthusiast, but they do intrigue me and I do regularly ...
Moving Maps It’s nice to be ahead of the curve sometimes. I spoke at a Future of Travel conference in Spain for The Economist last week and one of the questions I posed was ‘why can’t those air maps I spend so much time looking at work better, give us more informatio...
On my final day on the Routeburn Track in New Zealand I encountered a number of southern robins or bush robins. They look just like the English robin red breast, except they’re bigger and more robust looking and sport yellow breast feathers instead of red ones. The En...
Just before starting out on the Routeburn Track I saw a warning about shoe failure, make sure your walking shoes are in good shape. Well I thought mine were, I’ve got a few pairs of walking shoes and the ones I chose for my New Zealand walk had done some hard miles ov...
I don’t have the best of luck with New Zealand walking. Walking in Nepal the weather has always been beautiful for me. In England I’ve had some miserable days between the sunny ones. In New Zealand they always seem to turn the rain on when I arrive. ▲ The final ste...
I finally got around to reading Robert Macfarlane’s much acclaimed (and best selling) walking account – the ‘Book of the Year’ for many critics. Much of the The Old Ways follows the old routes of Britain, including offshore routes both by boat and on foot. That includ...
Four books which have caught my attention, although I’ve only read reviews. Plus one movie, which I have seen. • Chasing the Scream, the First & Last Days of the War on Drugs by Johann Hari, a summation of why this is another war – like the War on Terror – whic...
There’s lots of Australian attention focussed on the fate of two would-be drug importers caught in Bali and possibly facing death in front of a firing squad very soon. A bunch of facts and figures: • The ‘Bali 9’ had 8.3kg of heroin between them and apart from the ...
▲ With some friends we spent a week at Lorne, a popular seaside resort on the Great Ocean Road about 140km from Melbourne. Lots of things haven’t changed at all, like the wonderful views along the road. This is the mouth of the St George River, just to the west ...
© Tony Wheeler’s Travels 2013