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.
◄ Port Fairy Lighthouse I spent a week in Port Fairy in January, it’s Australian summer and Port Fairy is a popular escape from Melbourne. It’s 300km (200 miles) west along the coast, just before the border with South Australia and has a long (by Australian standar...
The subtitle of Anne Applebaum’s fascinating, but terribly depressing, tale tells it all. In the period from 1944, the year before the final collapse of Nazi Germany, to 1956, the year of the Hungarian Revolution, the Soviet Union truly did crush Eastern Europe. Af...
One of those books which I only read because somebody gave it to me – thank you Linda and Lowry – and I loved it! Douglas Cruickshank turns up in a small village in the far west of Uganda to work with coffee growers as a late-in-life Peace Corps volunteer, falls i...
My early January Tongan trip – which ended in the Ha’apai Islands group just before Cyclone Ian arrived – also featured Vava’u, the main island in the Vava’u group. ▲ The picturesque St Joseph’s Cathedral, overlooking Neifau, the island’s main town. Well only t...
Ruth Ozeki’s mysterious novel was a short list contender for the 2013 Booker Prize. The other 2013 contender I’ve read was Colum McCann’s TransAtlantic, which only made the long list. I was particularly interested in that one because of its connections with the first ...
I've posted several reports over the last few days on my recent visit to Tonga, I departed just as Cyclone Ian arrived. ▲ Whale watching is the big Tongan tourist attraction although I turned up in the wrong season, July through September is the prime time for...
William Blacker heads off to Romania soon after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the fall of the Berlin Wall and the violently ignominious end of the Ceaușescus. It’s often speculated that North Korea’s dynastic dictatorship may come to an equally surprising and rapi...
The remote Ha’apai Islands in Tonga were one of Lonely Planet’s Best in Travel top 10 regions for 2014 and they were the last stop on my recent Tongan travels. I flew out of Ha’apai to Tongatapu, the main island, and on to New Zealand on Thursday 9 January, the next d...
I’m still waiting for more comprehensive news on Ha’apai, the last stop on my recent Tonga visit and the island group hardest hit by Cyclone Ian. The cyclone turned up just after we left. ◄ The koki or red shining parrot is supposedly found only on ‘Eua and in ...
. I spent the first week and a half of 2014 in Tonga, departing just as the islands were hit by Cyclone Ian. I’m still waiting to hear the inside story on what happened on Ha’apai, my last stop in Tonga and the island group hardest hit. Meanwhile let’s look at some...
© Tony Wheeler’s Travels 2013