History
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 and 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 tube station. Such a project would require a business case approved by TfL and the completion of signal upgrade work on the Metropolitan line.
Read more about this topic: West Ruislip Station
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