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.
From British Virgin Islands my little group continued on to the US Virgin Islands (with an unexpected interruption by US immigration which I’ll cover in the next report!). ◄ We started with St John Island, which offers plenty of walking opportunities for energe...
From Mexico (Tulum and other Mayan ruins) and Havana (where old American cars and new Cuban restaurants are both doing fine) the next stop was the British Virgin Islands. A place for doing things rather than merely looking at them, although the sunsets were certainly ...
OK the politics is changing in baby steps since Fidel is still there, even if only in the background. The old American cars seem to be multiplying, I even had this crazy thought that somebody was buying them up in the USA and shipping them to Cuba. But if there was on...
After Mexico I flew on from Cancun to Havana, 13 years since I was there last. Way back then I’d gone thinking ‘better get there before Fidel falls off the perch.’ Well all those years later he’s still there, or at least still there behind the scenes. Brother Raul is ...
▲ Staying on the beach at Tulum on my recent Mexico visit it was inevitable that Mayan ruins would be part of the trip. Starting with the ruins right in Tulum of course, with El Castillo picturesquely balanced on the hilltop above the beach. ◄ We also...
I’ve been staying in the 5000 square km Sian Ka'an Biosphere Reserve on the Caribbean coast of the Mexican state of Quintana Roo. Cancun is the big beach resort of Quintana Roo, but the state also features other resorts (Playa del Carmen and lower key Tulum), the isla...
The wonders of flying ‘Great Circle’ routes never cease to amaze me. You fly between Australia and southern Africa (Jo’burg say) or southern South America (Buenos Aires) and a glance at the map and you think it’s straight across the Indian Ocean or the southern South ...
Got a few hours to kill at Heathrow? Well if you’ve arranged it in advance – or you’re an important enough British Airways or One World frequent flyer – you could go have a look at the British Airways Speedbird Centre, a neat little museum tracking the Imperial Airway...
‘Winglets,’ those little flick up bits at the end of an aircraft’s wings, are all the go. They first appeared on an assortment of gliders and privates jets, but as regular passengers we probably first saw them on the Boeing 747-400 from 1985. Forget the buzzwords and ...
Anyone who follows this website will know I have an interest in electric (or Hybrid) cars. I owned a Toyota Prius for nearly six years – and sold it to my sister so it’s still in the family. With care and a light foot I managed to drive nearly 5km purely on battery po...
© Tony Wheeler’s Travels 2013