West Ruislip station

map of railways in the vicinity of West Ruislip (shown here as Ruislip & Ickenham) The station was opened on 2 April 1906 as Ruislip & Ickenham by the Great Western and Great Central Joint Railway (GW&GCJR). The GW&GCJR connected London and the Midlands via High Wycombe and provided an alternative route to the Great Central Railway's (GCR's) main line through Aylesbury, Harrow and Wembley which shared its route with the Metropolitan Railway. Prior to the Second World War plans had been made for a number of extensions to the Central line. The London Passenger Transport Board's (LPTB's) 1935-40 New Works programme included the extension of the Central line to run alongside the Great Western Railway (GWR) tracks from North Acton to South Ruislip and the GW&GCJR tracks from there as far as Denham; the post-war introduction of the Metropolitan Green Belt caused the extension to be cut back to West Ruislip. Had the Central line extension been completed as planned, the next station would have been Harefield Road. Preparatory work on this section had started just before the war and a section of trackbed constructed for the extension can be seen to the west of the road overbridge, beyond the buffer stops of the Central line tracks alongside the National Rail line. The additional tracks were constructed by the GWR on behalf of the LPTB and on 30 June 1947, the first section of the western extension opened from North Acton to Greenford. On the same date the station name was changed to West Ruislip (for Ickenham). Central line services began running from West Ruislip on 21 November 1948. The station building was built by British Railways for London Underground and was not completed until the 1960s At about the same time the sub-title was omitted from the station name. Some Central line stations with older signage still show the longer name on the line diagrams on their platforms. The station was transferred from the Western Region of British Rail to the London Midland Region on 24 March 1974. The London Borough of Hillingdon announced in June 2011 that it would be lobbying Transport for London to have the Central line extended from West Ruislip to Uxbridge. Such a project would require a business case approved by TfL and the completion of signal upgrade work on the Metropolitan line. ==Services==

National Rail National Rail services at West Ruislip are operated by Chiltern Railways. The station's weekday off-peak service pattern is unusual in that it's served by trains at different frequencies in each direction. The station is served by one train per hour to London Marylebone and one train every two hours to . Services to and from London operate as stopping services calling at most stations. Additional services call at the station during the peak hours. On weekends, the service is increased to hourly in each direction and northbound services are extended beyond High Wycombe to and from via . London Underground On the London Underground, West Ruislip is one of the two western termini of the Central line and the next station is Ruislip Gardens to the east. The typical off-peak London Underground service on the Central line is 9 trains per hour to and from Epping. During the peak hours, this is increased to up to 12 trains per hour to and from Debden, with up to 7 tph continuing to and from Epping. ==Connections==

London Buses routes 278, U1 and U10 serve the station. ==Nearby places==

• Ruislip • Ickenham • Adjacent to the station is the former site of RAF West Ruislip, which until 2006 was a co-located United States Navy facility and elementary school, leased from the Ministry of Defence. This has been redeveloped for residential use. ==References==