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 picked up a copy of the hardback book of Kim Jong Il Looking at Things, the spin off from João Rocha’s amazingly popular tumblr site of pictures of – well of Kim Jong Il looking at things. Everything from tanks to bras, soft drinks to radishes, tupperware to vodka. ...
Our recent Italy trip featured three interesting hotels. In Pistoia for the Dialoghi sull’uomo literary festival we stayed in the Hotel Patria, Via Cripi 8/12 – on the edge of the old town, friendly, efficient, stylishly old fashioned and with great views from our roo...
Having visited Capri and Naples reading one of the classic books on the city seemed like an excellent idea. Norman Lewis turned up in Naples in late 1943, immediately after the Armistice between Italy and the Allies was signed. He spent the next year in the city and h...
▲ A mosaic from Pompeii in the Museo Archeological Nazionale The third stop on my recent Italian trip, after Pistoia and the island of Capri, was Naples, that most down to earth of southern Italian cities. It’s a place which positively drips history, you can fe...
Half way between the big attractions of Florence and Pisa, the northern Italy town of Pistoia has some very worthwhile distractions of its own. I was there for the Pistoia Literary Festival and wandering the beautiful old town was a reminder, yet again, that Italy sim...
Way back in 1990 I worked on a very thorough revision of the Lonely Planet Japan guide and my regions included the Inland Sea, the island-dotted waters sandwiched between Honshu (Japan’s major island) to the north, Shikoku (the smallest of the four big islands) to the...
I'm off to France next week to help mark 20 years of Lonely Planet publishing in French. Recently I wrote the foreword to '1000 Idées de Vacances en France.' You can't get it in English, but here's my original - pre-translation - contribution. It’s first trips ...
Why have I never been to Capri, that island, much beloved of dolce vita jet setters of the ‘50s and ‘60s, off the coast from Naples in Italy? So finally Maureen and I got there for a few days, after my Pistoia Literary Festival gig and before a few days in Naples. ...
I was in Pistoia (half way between Pisa and Florence in Italy) on 25 May to talk travel, other festival speakers included Colin Thubron, I enjoyed To a Mountain in Tibet, his circuit of Mt Kailash book last year when I was involved with the Dolman travel writing award...
▲ 1972 – our Mini in Eastern Turkey with Mt Ararat in the background, that’s where Noah landed the Ark Back in 1972 Maureen and I drove a Mini we’d bought in London for £65 to Kabul in Afghanistan, sold it for a small profit and carried on all the way to Sydney...
© Tony Wheeler’s Travels 2013