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’ve had three tight transfers in recent months, two successfully, one a total failure. ▲ Coming in to Singapore over the Rhiau Islands • Singapore Changi Airport – inbound from Phuket on Silk Air, out to Melbourne on Singapore Airlines with a crazy tight 50 m...
In between my Mini marketing trip to Xiamen in China with BMW and a very interesting flight from Hong Kong to London, I spent a few days in Hong Kong with Maureen. Hong Kong is always interesting, I love every trip I make back to the city. This trip included some fami...
On my recent Solomon Islands travels I spent some time on dive boats and did one inter-island trip on the regular high speed boat between Munda and Gizo. The 50km trip only takes a couple of hours although you can count on getting very wet. ▲ The Atoll Way in S...
‘Come to China for the launch of the new Mini Countryman model,’ suggested BMW China. Selling cars to China sounds a bit like that old ‘coals to Newcastle’ (or ‘ice cream to Eskimos’) line, but either trade with China has to be two way or we’re going to be up to our ...
Sometimes flights offer fantastic views from start to finish, like QF 127 on Monday 28 February 2011, a Qantas 747 heading from Hong Kong to London. First of all we took off heading west and then circled round east to fly directly over Victoria Harbour, the rapidly na...
▲ Big people & postie bikes - Nauru suffers from one of the world's highest obesity and diabetes rates After my spell on the Solomon Islands I carried on to a Pacific nation which gets very few visitors: Nauru. To find Nauru on the map head off north-east fro...
The Solomon Islands – a great place to travel. I started my Solomon circuit with a visit to Uepi Island on the Marovo Lagoon, a beautiful lagoon, interesting islands, fabulous scuba diving, lots of friendly sharks and some huge manta rays. From Seghe, on the edge of ...
A great idea – get a picture of modern Israel by starting at the northern border with Lebanon and walking along the coast until you arrive at the border with Gaza. It’s only about 180km long and the walk would pass through interesting coastal towns like Acre, Haifa, J...
In the bitter battle for the Solomons the US forces soon achieved air superiority and to supply their beleaguered forces on Guadalcanal Island the Japanese resorted to racing destroyers down The Slot (aka New Georgia Sound) under cover of darkness. To the Americans it...
I’m making a short trip around the Solomon Islands and then continuing for an even shorter visit to that most unusual Pacific nation, Nauru. I started by flying Melbourne-Brisbane-Honiara and since I had a very tight connection in Brisbane (and couldn’t get an earl...
© Tony Wheeler’s Travels 2013