And today has seen a little more work Underground:

• The shared tracks algorithm has been rewritten (God knows what I was thinking of when I wrote it).
• Track size is now based on the zoom level.
• Bezier curves have been implemented (with a little help).
• Central tracks are now reasonably smooth.

Still doesn't do anything useful mind...

I've finally pulled finger today and geo-coded the entire London Underground. Yes, my long abandoned Tube on Google Maps has had a makeover. Not only is it now full screen, with the ability to toggle stations and lines on and off, but all [underground] lines are now present, along with the 275 stations.

There are still a few outstanding jobs, mind:

• The track overlay algorithm is dodgy.
• Areas with shared tracks look rubbish once you zoom out.
• The tracks haven't been smoothed - they jump from station to station instead of curving nicely.
• It doesn't actually do much of use...

Still, maybe these will get fixed next time I feel the urge. And there's still the DLR and London Overground to add if I'm feeling really keen!

Yes, the Northern Line will once and fall all escape it's reputation as the 'Misery Line'. In 2011. In the meantime, the new timetable has just made things worse.

If that's not taking the piss I don't know what is, especially given my season ticket now costs £90 a month and the Charing Cross branch (i.e. the useful one, into the West End) is currently suspended at weekends.

This probably explains the driver, as we pulled into London Bridge during rush hour, asking everyone to pack in because 'the next train is nine minutes behind and will be just as packed'. Class.

Just to prove that I can accomplish more work on the Tube than the tits at Metronet, I've finally update my Tube on Google Maps application.

We now have the complete Misery/Northern Line, mostly smoothed (apart from the Charing Cross branch), the dusty dusty Drain aka Waterloo & City Line, the rather jagged (for the moment) Circle Line and the central part of the District Line.

There have also been code improvements: it now uses the Google Maps API V2, interchange stations are differentiated from stopping stations, lines on the same path do not completely overlap (in progress, still a bit dodgy around Paddington) and it works again (an API change had broken a dodgy bit of code, whoops).

Still a little way away from being useful, but getting there. Slowly.

The Tube this morning:

Apparently a five month closure wasn't quite enough to get things right.

I received the following travel update yesterday evening:

Faulty communications equipment on every line. Go London!

While I did get disbelieving stares after making a cup of tea at work earlier this week (our air-con is absent without leave) I must generally concede that it is indeed too hot for the most English of drinks. Nevertheless I stumbled across a lovely blog reviewing some of the many places around where you can acquire a cuppa when in need. So, once the Pimms dries up it may be well worth looking at 'a good place for a cup of tea and a think'.

And given my absence from the Tube of late has somewhat put a crimp in my people watching I am instead browsing the 'Going Underground' blog, complete with fashion victims without shame. Bless them.

Finally the heat has risen to that level where a trip on the tube becomes an exercise in torture. The cause isn't helped by my being on the Northern line; worse, by the time trains get to Oval getting on-board becomes a task of throwing oneself at the heaving mass in the carriage and hoping the doors close before you bounce out again. So, I've decided not to renew my tube pass this month, save some money (or at least spend it on something else) and use my bike.

One week in this is all working out very well. I've cycled to work every day and have even done all my chores today on the bike. I even used it to head down to Battersea on Tuesday for a spot of drinking. So it's all working out very well. The major challenges are fitting a clean shirt into my bag so I don't knock people unconscious after my arrival at work, surviving the messes at Elephant & Castle, Borough and near Liverpool St. Station (pedestrians seem to edit cycles from their vision) and, as I discovered today, avoiding the mass tourist coaches and their contents at weekends.

Even better, it relieves the guilt when I start scoffing Jaffa Cakes post shopping...

However, there is one other thing that must be ranted about: bendy buses. What were they thinking? "The RouteMaster is rubbish; people only want to get on and off buses at bus stops - let's replace them with 20m monstrosities that will send cyclists flying through the air should they be anywhere near one attempting to turn". One wonders why one pays council tax...

Rants aside though, one reason to gain a few more calories to use during the day: Fuller's Honey Dew.

Well, I've been outclassed. The Tube Journey Planner not only maps the tube very nicely but integrates real-time problem information as well.

Technically, they are cheating a bit. They're using edited background images to show the tube lines. Hence it's not easy to modify (not a problem in London as our chances of getting another tube line are non-existant) but the line lines are smooth and look really good. And the redraw is nice and fast. Downside - the map stops at the end of the tube lines - the world outside has vanished (and a good thing, too).

Neat toy though, very nicely done. And it does set quite a high benchmark.

And here's a second release of the tube-on-Google-Maps application.

What's new?

• We can now specify points between stations to let the line curve.
• The Bank branch is shown.
• The code is a lot cleaner and now uses objects.

Still coming:

• Status information - It looks like I'd need to screen-scrape the ETA and travel news pages on LU, so may need a PHP page in to scrape and convert to XML.
• Status area - currently thinking a right side panel to hold station information/problems.
• Curve algorithm - because entering them manually sucks.
• Missing lines - along with an algorithm to ensure lines between the same stations don't overlap.

Stay tuned!