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.
My recent central African trip kicked off at Lubumbashi in Congo DRC, continued on to the capital Kinshasa, jumped across the mighty Congo River to Brazzaville in the Congo Republic, then headed upriver to Kisangani, the town on the ‘bend in the river’. Finally I cont...
Edited by ex-Rough Guider Mark Ellingham and others and introduced by Michael Palin, Ox Travels features 36 travel tales by well known travel writers, all around the theme of a meeting. The proceeds go to Oxfam. My half a dozen favourites? • Madam Say Go – Sonia Fa...
I’ve been a Boris Bike fan since soon after it launched in London on 30 July 2010. Officially it’s the Barclays Cycle Hire scheme, but we Boris Bikers like to name it after London’s colourful mayor Boris Johnson. I was in London back when the scheme launched and did a...
▲ Sometimes you look out the window and the view is magic. Like the morning a couple of weeks ago when I flew with Kenya Airways from Nairobi to Lubumbashi in Congo DRC. Soon after departing Nairobi there, off to the west was Kilimanjaro just poking up above the clo...
▲ The lava lake in the Nyiragongo Volcano. I’ve been kicking around Congo DRC with a sidetrip to the other Congo, Congo Republic (aka Congo Brazzaville). I’ve covered Lubumbashi, Kinshasa, Brazzaville and Kisangani and my final stop was Goma, right on the border ...
What’s the most dangerous thing that’s ever happened to you, I’m frequently asked? Well nothing I’m aware of I usually answer, for some reason you turn left instead of right and completely miss the accident. Yesterday a Hewa Bora 727-100 aircraft crashed on landing...
I’ve been kicking around Congo DRC with a sidetrip to the other Congo, Congo Republic (aka Congo Brazzaville). I’ve covered Lubumbashi, Kinshasa, Brazzaville and Kisangani and my final stop was Goma, right on the border with Rwanda. Visas Visas are the big problem...
‘A Story of Greed, Terror and Heroism in Colonial Africa’ is the subtitle of this page-turner of a history. The Greed is down to King Leopold, the Belgian horror story, who grabbed a large tranche of central Africa and ran it ruthlessly as his personal colony. The Ter...
I’ve been travelling the Congo, starting with a visit to Lubumbashi in Katanga Province. From there I went to the capital Kinshasa and made a sidetrip across the Congo River to Brazzaville the capital of the ‘other Congo,’ the Congo Republic. Then it was back to Kinsh...
I’m travelling around the Congo – or rather around both Congos, the big ex-Belgian one (Democratic Republic of Congo) and the smaller ex-French one (Congo Republic, aka Congo Brazzaville). I started in Lubumbashi and continued to the capital Kinshasa. Next stop took m...
© Tony Wheeler’s Travels 2013