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.
This is my third batch of Dolman Award books, we’re working our way through the ‘long list’ now. Click here for my first batch and here for my second. Both these books look at walking I really liked Olivia Laing’s To the River, a walk down the River Ouse, the one V...
◄ I’ve been getting around London with three useful smartphone apps. When I need a car in London I go to Zipcar and their phone app shows me where the cars are (the nearest one is about 100 metres from where I live in London) and altogether there are 1700 of them scat...
◄ I’m a fan of fold-up bags, I often carry one with me that can be used if you’re doing a sidetrip and want to leave stuff behind at a hotel. Or some unexpected acquisitions means you need extra carrying capacity. A fold-up daypack seemed like a nice idea, something y...
. Although there are all sorts of World War II memorials around London until 28 June 2012 there was no memorial to the Royal Air Force’s Bomber Command. Even though the chances of being killed were higher than in any other group, of the 125,000 aircrew in Bomber ...
I crossed the Atlantic on the Cunard ship Queen Mary 2 in May this year and I commented that it was one of those ‘been there, done that’ experience, I wouldn’t be in any hurry to make another Cunard trip. I’d be much less enthusiastic about cruising with the Ca...
▲ Germany’s a world leader in sustainable energy usage, everywhere you go there seem to be wind turbines on the horizon and roof after roof covered in solar cells. Looking out from Wartburg Castle above Eisenach I spotted this hilltop view of wind turbines and some...
◄ I’ve posted about how I came to inherit a pair of cufflinks my great grandfather was given by Kaiser Wilhelm. The little box they came in had the address Unter den Linden 30 in Berlin, that would have been East Berlin before the Berlin Wall came down. ...
Maureen and I, two German friends and four Australian ones, two cars, starting Frankfurt, finishing Berlin. A trip of castles and forts, churches and museums, wineries and factories, lots of food, perhaps a little too much drinking, some of the Euro 2012 football cham...
I’m chairing the panel of judges for the 2012 Dolman Travel Book of the Year Award, the annual award for the best British travel book. I’ve covered the first three contenders in an earlier blog. The next four on my reading list from the entrants: When in Rome – Mat...
On my recent visit to Moscow to help with the launch of the first Lonely Planet guidebooks in Russian I was intrigued by the interest in a Russian language version of Lonely Planet’s Russia guide. I’ve always said that our first Russia guidebook was the most difficult...
© Tony Wheeler’s Travels 2013