Is there any end in sight to the planned engineering works taking place on the tube on the weekends? I stay in Paddington frequently and 25-26 September it looks like only the Bakerloo line will be in service to that station. I know they offer replacement bus service, but still..

Not really. Works are planned on various lines until 2020. Check out this site for dates of completion for the various components. There is meant to be a break for the Olympics, but I would expect tube closures for years to come.

The good news is that at least the Jubilee line is meant to be finished soon.

It is, however, a good time to discover London buses (apart from the replacement services). Paddington's got a number of handy bus routes, and it's an awful lot more interesting way to get around. Not always the fastest, but if you have a direct connection instead of an awkward change on the tube, it can easily beat it.

(My preference, these days, is to cycle or take the bus when in London...)

Wow, it is pretty endless at this point, then. Guess I'll have to start taking the bus.

In Tokyo, the metro (subway) closes for the evening around 12:30am. It re-opens the next day around 5 am. When an escalator has to be replaced, the entire job is finished during that closed period over one night.

I think of this when passing the hoardings on an escalator under renovation for six months (or so) in the London tube.

The usual reasoning given for the time it takes to replace the escalators on the Tube is the age of the system - unusual, cramped tunnels and odd sizes mean that most of the escalators on the system can only be custom-built on site (in very difficult conditions).

However, I am certain this is only part of the story...

This lists all closures for the next 6 months, to give you an idea

http://www.tfl.gov.uk/assets/livetra...k-closures.pdf

Have you noticed how long the (up?) escalator in Bank, from Northern Line to DLR (and Circle/District via Monument) has been out of action? It feels like it's been out of action for a year, and during that time I've frequently used the escalator directly beside it and never hear nor see anyone working in the area. Maybe they truly have run out of money, or can't afford to pay people to work 24/7 (or close enough) to get it upgraded. It's also a relatively modern area within Bank (linking the DLR, which has only been around since the late 80s).

I was also suprised how long it took the escalators in Canary Wharf to be torn down and reconstructed in the opposite direction, a couple of weeks. Obviously a lot cheaper for them to take their time and snarl up the pedestrian flow than just get it over and done with.

I laughed when I read this. I would underline 'meant to be finished' , as so far all of the deadlines have been broken.

No faith whatsoever in any of the completion dates set out by Tfl.

After returning from my trip to London I can suggest one station that needs immediate improvement - Queensway. Everybody has to queue for two lifts just to get in or out? Wow! Can't imagine what that is like in peak times.

You should see Covent Garden and Goodge Street if you think this is bad!

Queensway was actually refurbished - and the lifts improved - in 2006. It's just something you have to put up with in a city that's been so densely settled for so long - there's very few places you can build, and even fewer where you can do so cost-effectively.

The only station I can think of that's managed to expand from lift-only in recent years is Angel. And that was a huge project - replacing the tiny (and quite terrifying) island platform was no mean feat.

The scariest station I know at rush hour is Holborn. There's just such a stream of people going through there at the same time in the morning peak that it takes ages just to get out - despite a large bank of escalators moving to the surface. You're crushed into enclosed stairwells to get off the platform, and they barely manage to clear the platform before the next train comes in. Fortunately, London Underground are (by necessity) rather good at crowd control, even if this means closing down stations in the middle of peak time (a regular occurrence at King's Cross St Pancras before the Northern Ticket Hall opened).