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.
I’m continuing to watch the scary route of Cyclone Ian across the islands of Tonga where I was just a couple of days ago. I’ve got my fingers crossed for the people we met while we were there and I’m waiting to hear they’re OK. ▲ A Hobbit-themed Boeing 777, pho...
.I’ve spent the past two weeks in the Pacific nation of Tonga – dividing my time between the main island, Tongatapu, and the two northern island groups, Ha’apai and Vava’u. Coincidentally Ha’apai was one of the 10 top regions in Lonely Planet’s Best in Travel 2014 rat...
. Melbourne’s big ferris wheel is finally back in operation. Back in 2009 – after I’d been for rides on the London Eye and the Singapore Flyer – commented on the sad story of Melbourne’s version. It opened on my birthday – 20 December 2008 – and shut down just 34 d...
The Germans are experts at stringing words together to produce interesting – even quite necessary – words of often quite incredible length. I mean why say ‘lover’ or ‘partner’ when you could much more accurately say that she’s your Lebensabschnittpartner, ‘the person...
When I’m looking for ‘interesting’ (which could also be read as ‘expensive’) hotels I often use the Tablet Hotels website and booking operation. Tablet’s on-line magazine regularly features interesting categories with an assortment of places that fit the definition. ...
I posted a couple of weeks ago about how I was going to a lot of opera, the Melbourne Ring Cycle, 16 hours of Wagnerian music spread over four days. Toss in the necessary rest days and it takes a week to get through. I could equally accurately title it Maureen’s ...
▲ Me in 1977, driving a Holden GTS up the winding road to Arthurs Seat along the coast from Melbourne. (photographer Adrian van Valen) It was the iconic Australian car. The first FJ Holden rolled off the assembly line in 1948, but in four years times (so just a y...
When I visited the Yungang Caves in China recently I commented on how the great regret of my travel life was missing out on the Buddha statues at Bamiyan in Afghanistan. I didn’t get up to Bamiyan when I was in Afghanistan in 1972. When I got there in 2006 the statues...
Melbourne Now is a huge exhibit of contemporary Melbourne Art at both the National Gallery of Victoria and at the associated Ian Potter Centre, on the other side of the Yarra River in central Melbourne, Australia. As the NGV website explains ‘Melbourne Now celebrates ...
I've been going through my elderly mother’s photo collection in recent weeks. I posted some shots of vintage BOAC airliners, reminders of my dad (an RAF pilot during WW II) and his time with the airline. Here’s a BOAC check in desk from over 50 years ago. Doesn’t look...
© Tony Wheeler’s Travels 2013