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.
Yesterday I posted about wacky Chinese buildings, today it’s a wacky Melbourne book. Jane Rawson’s novel A Wrong Turn at the Office of Unmade Lists combines a dystopian Melbourne in 2030, crippled by climate change, industrial meltdown and societal collapse, with a li...
Yesterday I posted about Melbourne’s (temporary) MPavilion. After I wrote that piece I went to a session at the pavilion about Chinese filmmaker Yang Fudong. There’s a current exhibition on his works at ACMI – the Australian Centre for the Moving Image. The Yang Fu...
▲ Melbourne’s Southbank Arts Precinct has a new temporary structure in the Queen Victoria Gardens, the MPavilion. Sponsored by Naomi Milgrom this year’s Sean Godsell designed temporary building will be followed by another new design each year for four years. You can r...
If you’ve been waiting for the new and much acclaimed Narendra Modi government in India to do something you’ll notice outside of India here it is – electronic visas. No more endless hassling at the visa issuing offices, you can now (like the USA or Turkey for me recen...
I’m regularly amazed at how many people I know who have spent time in Afghanistan, have connections with Afghanistan or even visit the country. Alexandra and Leigh Copeland have been dealing with Afghan carpets ever since they spent time in the country in the e...
I posted earlier in the month about how there seems to be some new ‘tech challenge’ almost every day. OK, here are 5 more of them: • Once you’ve subscribed to a magazine it’s a race to see how soon they can suggest you resubscribe. Of course when they make thei...
◄ Seems like everywhere I go these days has recently signed up to a bicycle rental scheme. I’ve posted about my encounters with them in London, Paris, Melbourne, New York, San Francisco and now Brisbane. Back in September I was in Brisbane for the Brisbane Writers Fe...
Hilary Mantel wrote a number of books before her big breakthrough with Wolf Hall. Followed up by her second Booker Prize winner Bring Up the Bodies. I saw the two books, as plays, in London earlier this year. On the same day, matinee and evening performance so it was ...
▲ Maureen and I arrived in Australia – on the beach at Exmouth on the North-West Cape of Western Australia – on 7 December 1972. In a few weeks time that will be 42 years ago. ▲ Exactly five days earlier Gough Whitlam had been elected Prime Minister with the electi...
There’s always lots of bird activity around my place in Australia, this time of year I can watch my courtyard blackbird and my computer screen at the same time. Last year I noted the first blackbird chicks had hatched out and were contemplating departure at the end of...
© Tony Wheeler’s Travels 2013