On 26 Apr, 22:13, "michael adams" wrote:
Instead of an escalator just imagine a large cable drum, where you
were walking on the hollow hub in the middle. The circumferance of
the outside edge of the drum which would represent the handrail
would probably be at least twice as long as the circumferance
of the hub which represented the tread. So your hands would probably
need to cover twice the distance of your feet. i.e they'd be
twice as busy.

Sorry, this is bonkers. The handrail is driven by a separate set of
drums so can run at any speed. Wikipedia has a good diagram:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escalator

It's all in the gearing, which is presumably just incorrect at
Westminster.

U