Ruislip Gardens tube station
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Ruislip Gardens is a London Underground station. It lies on the Central Line, between West Ruislip and South Ruislip, in Travelcard Zone 5.
The station has an island platform layout. Some services start or terminate here rather than West Ruislip, the trains leaving or entering the Central Line depot to the west of the station, south of the running lines. As part of the 1935-40 New Works plan Central Line services were projected westwards from a new junction, west of North Acton on the line to Ealing Broadway. The original intention was to extend the services as far as Denham, but after the Second World War this was cut back to West Ruislip, with services starting in November 1948.
There is a link from the Central Line depot for stock movement to the Metropolitan Line just to the west of Ruislip via a shunting neck. A running link round the southern boundary of the depot has several times been proposed, to make a connection with the Metropolitan Line. This would allow through running of Central Line trains onwards from Ruislip Gardens to Uxbridge, but nothing has ever come of these suggestions.
Chiltern Line tracks towards High Wycombe run past the station, but there are no longer platforms on them. A GWR service out of Paddington, and a Great Central service out of Marylebone, both steam-hauled and meeting at Northolt Junction adjacent to South Ruislip (joint) station, began in 1908, with platforms at Ruislip Gardens. The main line services stopping at Ruislip Gardens ceased in 1958 and the station closed, leaving only the Central Line services in place. Until recently the entrance to a passenger stairwell was visible on the London-bound side of the Chiltern tracks.
Northolt Airport is close by.
The station acquired poetical immortality in John Betjeman's poem Middlesex.
- "Gaily into Ruislip Gardens runs the red electric train..."
...although the trains are now white and blue, and only the doors are red.