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.
What is it about the Congo which inspires such great writing? Whether it’s powerful novels (from Heart of Darkness via A Bend in the River to Poisonwood Bible), shocking history (King Leopold’s Ghost to In the Footsteps of Mr Kurtz or Dancing in the Glory of Monsters)...
At the Olympic Games opening in London (I was there) I commented that some of the crowd participation was remarkably like a mass games in Pyongyang, North Korea, except there were no killer dictators involved and we hadn’t rehearsed. I’ve been to mass games in Pyon...
I’m chairing the 2012 Dolman Travel Book of the Year award this year, deciding on the best travel book published in Britain last year. I’ve posted blogs about the awards and, as I worked my way through the entrants and the long list my thoughts on the books entered. C...
Love them and hate them – I’ve listed LAX (Los Angeles International) and CDG (Paris Charles de Gaulle) as my least favourite airports in the first world. On the other hand LHR (London Heathrow), SIN (Singapore Changi) and MEL (Melbourne Tullamarine) are all OK by me ...
It’s my final batch of books from the long list for the Dolman Travel Book of the Year Award. I’m chairing the panel of judges and we’ll pick the winner at Hatchards Bookshop on Piccadilly in London on 5 September. Click here for the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th batches...
◄ Maureen and I were at the Olympic opening in London on Friday night. Here we are with Simon Calder, travel editor at the Independent newspaper. The opening – fantastic – a wonderful, exciting, dramatic evening full of high spots. We all loved the Queen ‘parachuti...
I dropped into my local Boots (a major British pharmacy chain) the other day to get some portrait photographs for visa applications. For an extra £2 the machine would dispense not just ordinary old photographs you could use anywhere, but photographs which were speci...
◄ North-west of London and just beyond Oxford the town of Burford is regularly cited as one of the prettiest in England. Of course it’s well equipped with pubs, like any pretty English village or town, although it’s unclear why there should be a mermaid pub so far...
This is my 5th, and almost final, batch of Dolman Award books, we’re working our way towards the ‘short list’ from which we’ll pick the winner at Hatchards Bookshop on Piccadilly in London on 5 September. Click here for the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th batches of books. W...
And now my 4th batch of Dolman Award books, we’re working our way towards the ‘short list’ from which we’ll pick the winner at Hatchards Bookshop on Piccadilly in London on 5 September. Click here for the 1st, 2nd and 3rd batches of books. Harlem is Nowhere by Shar...
© Tony Wheeler’s Travels 2013