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.
It's my annual look back at the year's travels. This year I started with Museums & Galleries, moved on to Cars & Bikes, then Animals & Wildlife, followed by Big Buddhas, 10 Books and finally Beaches. Today it's my favourite Aerial Views of 2010. I’ll qu...
To be honest I’m not really a beach person, I get bored sitting around and even without visiting any beaches I get too much sun during the year. Nevertheless I had several great days on an assortment of fine beaches on the Brazilian island of Fernando do Noronha and l...
There were lots of interesting books in 2010 – fiction and non-fiction, travel and standing still. Here are 10 I found particularly interesting, starting with 5 travel books: Country Driving – Peter Hessler’s look at contemporary China from behind the steering wheel ...
Once again I'm looking back over the last year's travels. Today it's 2010's Big Buddhas. On 21 December it was Animals & Wildlife, on 20 December Cars & Bikes and on 19 December Museums & Galleries. I encountered some big Buddhas during 2010, most recen...
There were no wildlife trips in 2010, no African safaris looking for the big four, no whale watching trips (although there was a visit to Australia’s last whaling station), no Antarctic visits to seal and whale colonies. Fortunately the birdlife comes right to my hous...
Time for my end of year sum up, on 19 December I looked at Museums & Art Galleries. Today it's cars and bicycles. No change in the cars Maureen and I own in Australia – a Lotus Europa, a Mini Cooper S, a Toyota Prius. Or in the UK – no car at all. ▲ Techie in...
OK, it's time to look back over the last year. Starting with Museums & Galleries. Reading through my diary for the past 12 months there sure were a lot of them! Some highlights: ▲ The Alexandria Library right on the Mediterranean Coast in Egypt. An interesti...
On 15 December an overloaded Indonesian fishing boat attempting to get Middle East refugees into Australia ran ashore on Christmas Island, an isolated Australian territory off to the west of Java. The ship’s engine failed and the ship broke up on the rocky coast, at l...
A pre-Christmas week in Phuket included a visit to this recent acquisition, the 45-metre-high seated Big Buddha figure which seems to be visible from all over the southern end of the island. A long winding road twists and turns up to the hilltop location where the f...
Alain Mabanckou teaches French literature at UCLA and is the author of a dozen novels and books of poetry in French. This one has been translated into English and follows the misadventures of an alcoholic school-teacher nicknamed Broken Glass drifting through life at ...
© Tony Wheeler’s Travels 2013