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.
▲ Sunset camels in the Jerusalem Wilderness above the Dead Sea I’ve been travelling around Palestine and then on to Israel. First lesson, there’s nothing dangerous about Palestine. Terrorist talk has comprehensively scared tourists away and the Israelis don’t mak...
◄ The other night I went to an opera first night in Melbourne with Maureen, I wore a dinner jacket and my Kaiser Bill cufflinks. There’s a story behind those cufflinks with the German Imperial Eagle and a ruby in the centre and how I came to own them. My great gran...
I don’t just read travel books – although three recent novels also travelled through their pages. I really liked Jennifer Egan’s A Visit from the Goon Squad which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2011. Following the inter-connected lives of rock mogul Bennie Sala...
▲ Our Korea guidebook has a section on Architecture as Art in the Seoul chapter. Featuring the Kring Gumho Culture Complex ‘looking like a giant music speaker crossed with a slab of Swiss cheese.' (Unsangdong Architects) ▲ Just down the road is the I’Park Tower...
Speculating on what’s happening north of the border is a favourite South Korean occupation and the best story from my recent visit was that Gaddafi still lives. At least in North Korea. Earlier this year Air Koryo, the North Korean flag carrier, started a weekly Py...
Maureen and I went to Jeju, the holiday island dangling off the southern end of the Korean Peninsula, for the World Trail Conference, a get together for walking trail organisers and administrators from around the world. ◄ with Suh Myung-sook While we were in Jej...
▲ Maureen and I spent two days with a Monash University archaeology group visiting recently discovered Aboriginal rock art sites in Arnhem Land in Australia’s Northern Territory. Like this superb kangaroo. ▲ Getting to these remote sites – a couple of hundred ...
I’ll have a travel blog on a visit to Arnhem Land Aboriginal art sites up in the next few days. I spent a day in Darwin after my Arnhem Land explorations and made a return trip to Darwin’s wonderful Museum & Art Gallery of the Northern Territory ▲ The bright...
. ▲ Before and after my recent Mustang trek I paused in Kathmandu arriving and departing. It was my first visit in 8 years and it was a pleasure to find so many things completely unchanged, like the chaos of travel business signs in Thamel, the backpacker centre...
▲ The first half of our two week trek to the legendary Tibetan kingdom of Mustang or Lo Manthang took us up to the ‘capital’ Lo Manthang. This is the main square of the walled town. The king’s palace, where we had an audience with the king,’ overlooks the square fro...
© Tony Wheeler’s Travels 2013