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.
There was lots of opera in my life last week – a complete circuit of Wagner’s Ring Cycle, the Olympics (or Mt Everest if you wish) of opera. Maureen has spent a lot of time over the last few years persuading Opera Australia to put on the Ring Cycle in Melbourne....
I’ve often said the scariest moments of my life have all been in taxis. Well there haven’t been any really bad ones in 2013, but there have certainly been some taxi encounters. Of course you have to get ripped off by a taxi driver somewhere in your travels and my b...
At a couple of locations in London a new British Airways electronic billboard ad switches from the regular ad to a small girl pointing at a BA aircraft as it passes overhead. In this case she’s pointing out it’s BA 883 arriving from Kiev.
▲ Aircraft geeks fight to get on the first commercial flights on new aircraft – Singapore Airlines auctioned off seats for the first flights on their double-decker Airbus A380 for example. Last flights can also attract a premium and Singapore Airlines tried that too w...
The latest of life’s many annoyances! OK, they’ve been around for years, if you wanted to pay with one of the ‘expensive’ credit cards (ie American Express or Diners Club) you got charged for the privilege. Use a Visa or Mastercard please. Now they’re starting to char...
A quick trip to Canberra for the opening of the National Library of Australia's Mapping our World exhibit. It's a superb exhibition, open until 10 March 2014. It features maps from the National Library's own collection, from media mogul Kerry Stoke's superb private co...
I seem to have encountered Detroit regularly in recent months. I enjoyed Mark Binelli’s superb book about the collapse and fall of the Motor city. Then I noticed Detroit shopping bags in a Whole Foods Supermarket in London. And Made-in-Detroit Shinola bicycles in Palo...
Three recent books I’ve read, all with some travel connection. Transatlantic – Colum McCann – was a long-list contender for this year’s Booker Prize. The first flight across the Atlantic in 1919 plays a key role in the book from start to finish. I’ve always been fa...
▲The trouble with throwing coins in Chinese fountains is there aren’t many Chinese coins, you rarely seem to break a one yuan note (¥1 equals 16cents US) although there is also a half yuan (or five jiao) note. There are three coins – one jiao (¥0.10), five jiao (¥0....
At the beginning the year I posted about some of the birds I’ve seen around my house in Australia. Including a baby blackbird which departed the courtyard nest on New Year’s Day. From my study if I look beyond the computer screen I’m looking at now I can see into the ...
© Tony Wheeler’s Travels 2013