1906 - Elephant & Castle station opens 1915 - The line is extended from Baker Street to Queen's Park 1939 - The Bakerloo line takes over the Stanmore branch of the Metropolitan line 1979 - The Jubilee line opens and, after 40 years, the Stanmore branch of the Bakerloo line closes 1982 - The four peak period trains between Queen's Park and Watford Junction are withdrawn 1989 - Services between Queen's Park and Harrow & Wealdstone restart Central Line The Central Line, originally called the Central London Railway, opened on 30 July 1900 as a cross-London route from Bank to Shepherd's Bush. Popular from the start, part of its success stemmed from the cost: a flat fare of two old pence to travel. This inspired the press to call it the 'Tuppenny Tube.' In 1908, London hosted the Franco-British exhibition, the largest fair of its kind, which attracted 8 million visitors.

At the time, the exhibition site was little more than a cluster of white buildings with no official name but when the Central line extended to the site, it officially became known as White City. In the 1990s, the Central line was upgraded to automatic operation, making it the second Underground line, after the Victoria line in the 1960s, to use this technology. Key Central line dates 1900 - Central London Railway opens 1908 - The line extends west to Wood Lane to support the White City Exhibition 1912 - The line extends east from Bank to Liverpool Street 1920 - The line extends west to Ealing Broadway 1945 - After the war, new tracks next to to the main line railway start to be used. They run from North Acton to West Ruislip and include new tunnels from Liverpool Street to Leyton 1994 - The Epping to Ongar shuttle service closes, due to low passenger numbers Circle line Although the first circular service started in 1884, the Circle line as we know it didn't really begin until the 1930s.

The 'Circle line' name first appeared on a poster in 1936 but took another 13 years for it to get its own, separate line on the Tube map. The tracks used by the Circle line were run by the Metropolitan Railway and District Railway, two companies who couldn't agree on how to run the line. Their differences initially meant that District Railway ran the clockwise trains and Metropolitan Railway, the anti-clockwise trains. In December 2009, the Circle line was broken and replaced by an end-to-end service between Hammersmith and Edgware Road, via Aldgate. Key Circle line dates 1884 - The first circular service begins 1868 - The Paddington to Farringdon (Metropolitan Railway) line extends to South Kensington. The District Railway opens its new line from South Kensington to Westminster at the same time 1884 - The District Railway line finally extends to Mark Lane (now Tower Hill).

It meets the Metropolitan Railway line to create a full circle 1905 - The line is electrified 1933 - Metropolitan Railway and District Railway become part of the London Passenger Transport Board 1936 - The 'Circle line' name appears on a poster for the first time 1949 - The Circle line gets its own line on the Tube map 2009 - The Circle line is broken and replaced by and end-to-end service District line The District line first opened on Christmas Eve 1868, between South Kensington and Westminster. In the years following, it extended both east and west, even going as far as Windsor. In 1883, the line was extended from Ealing Broadway to Windsor and has run services as far as Southend, during its time. Uxbridge and Hounslow were part of the District line until they were transferred to the Piccadilly line in 1933 and 1964. Key District line dates 1868 - The first section of what is now the District line begins.

It runs between South Kensington and Westminster 1869 - New tracks open between Gloucester Road and West Brompton 1874 - The line extends to Hammersmith, Richmond in 1877 and Ealing Broadway in 1879 1885 - The two-year old Ealing to Windsor service ends 1884 - The line extends to Mark Lane (now Tower Hill) 1910 - The line extends to Uxbridge, following an earlier extension to Hounslow (in 1884) Hammersmith & City line Intended as a feeder to the Metropolitan line, with the extension running through fields on the fringes of suburbia to Hammersmith, The Hammersmith and City Railway opened on 13 June 1864. It wasn't until 1988, however, that it gained independence to become the Hammersmith & City line in its own right. Jointly run by the Great Western Railway (GWR) and Metropolitan Railway (MR), when it opened, the only stations on the two-mile long track were Notting Hill (now Ladbroke Grove) and Shepherd's Bush.

Since the Circle line began running trains on the 'loop' in 2009, the Hammersmith & City line no longer has any unique stations. Every one of its 29 stations is shared with another tube line. Key Hammersmith & City line dates 1863 - The Metropolitan Railway opens between Farringdon and Paddington 1864 - Together with Great Western Railways, Metropolitan Railway extends the line to Hammersmith 1864 - Services to Addison Road (now Kensington Olympia), via the curve at Latimer Road, begin. Following bomb damage in 1940, this service is suspended and doesn't restart after the war 1869 - A new London and South Western line opens between north of Addison Road and Richmond, via Ravenscourt Park.

The new Hammersmith station (at Grove Road) means the old terminus is re-sited 1884 - The line extends east to Whitechapel 1906 - The line is electrified 1936 - Trains are extended over the former District Railway line to Barking 1988 - The line becomes the Hammersmith & City line in its own right Jubilee line Although a number of Jubilee line stations are among the Underground's newest, the line also serves some stations that originally opened over 100 years ago. Inaugurated on 1 May 1979, the Jubilee line linked new tunnels across central London (stretching for 4 kilometres between Baker Street and Charing Cross with the former Bakerloo line branch north of Baker Street to Stanmore). The northern end of the line had previously been part of the Metropolitan Railway, before transferring to the Bakerloo line in 1939 when a new section of twin tube tunnels between Baker Street and Finchley Road (including stations at St John's Wood and Swiss Cottage) also opened.

From 1979 Charing Cross was the line's southern terminus for two decades, but further extension to the Jubilee line was recommended in the East London Rail Study in 1989 with Royal Assent to the Bill obtained in March 1992. Work started on the £3.5bn project to extend the Jubilee line in 1993. The Prime Minister at the time, John Major drove the first pile of the extension at a start-of-work ceremony at Canary Wharf on 8 December 1993. The extension from Green Park to Stratford was opened in three phases during 1999. The extended Jubilee line was finally joined to the existing line on 20 November 1999, although Westminster was the last station on the line to be opened on 22 December 1999. Since its opening, the Jubilee line extension has facilitated and contributed to the significant growth of London's Docklands as a centre for business, residential and leisure activity. Metropolitan line Opened in 1863, The Metropolitan Railway between Paddington and Farringdon was the first, urban, underground railway in the world.

An extension from Baker Street to Swiss Cottage in 1868, however, put an end to this claim to fame. With the growth of suburban areas in the north west of London, Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and Middlesex (dubbed 'Metroland'), in the 20th century, Metropolitan Railway spotted a marketing opportunity: by promoting dream homes in the countryside, they could also highlight their own fast, rail services to get people there. As the owners of surplus land, Metropolitan Railway were in a position to branch out into real estate, and by 1919 they were developing housing under the name of Metropolitan Railway Country Estates Limited. Metroland was immortalised in the 1973 BBC TV documentary, narrated by the then Poet Laureate, Sir John Betjeman.

Key Metropolitan line dates 1863 - The line opens between Paddington and Farringdon 1868 - The line extends from Baker Street to Swiss Cottage 1892 - Line extensions reaches Aylesbury 1904 - The Uxbridge branch opens 1905 - The first electric trains appear and are gradually introduced across the whole line, apart from the line beyond Rickmansworth 1925 - The Watford branch opens 1932 - Another branch, to Stanmore opens, but this becomes part of the Bakerloo line in 1939 1961 - The steam trains operating north of Rickmansworth stop as the line is electrified to Amersham and Chesham. Services beyond Amersham are taken over by British Rail (now Chiltern Railways) 2012 - A new fleet of electric trains are introduced, the first on the Underground to feature air conditioning and full-length, walk-through interiors Northern line The Northern line, opened in 1937, was created out of two separate railways: the City and South London Railway, and the Charing Cross, Euston and Hampstead Railway.

It expanded a little but WWII slowed the expansions down. Scheduled plans to extend to Mill Hill, Brockley Hill, Elstree and Bushey Heath (known as the Northern Heights plan), suffered post-war restrictions and never recovered. These plans were finally dismissed in 1954. Key Northern line dates 1890 - City & South London Railway opens - it runs from King William Street (near Bank) to Stockwell 1907 - Charing Cross, Euston and Hampstead Railway (Hampstead Railway, as it's called) opens.

It runs from the Strand (Charing Cross) to Golders Green, with a branch from Camden Town to Highgate 1921 - Hampstead Railway extends to Edgware 1922 - City and South London Railway links to the Hampstead Railway at Camden Town 1926 - City and South London/Hampstead Railway extends south to Morden and Kennington 1933 - City and South London/Hampstead Railway become the Northern line 1939 - 1941 The new Northern line extends between Archway and East Finchley, High Barnet and Mill Hill East 1975 - The tunnelled link between Finsbury Park and Moorgate, via Essex Road, is transferred to British Rail (now First Capital Connect) Piccadilly line The Piccadilly line opened as the Great Northern, Piccadilly & Brompton Railway on 15 December 1906 and it ran between Finsbury Park and Hammersmith. The line remained much the same until the 1930s when it expanded rapidly, incorporating stations which are now regarded as classic examples of period architecture.

Arnos Grove, Southgate and Sudbury Town, for example, are listed buildings. The development of Heathrow Airport has also been a reason for expansion, with Heathrow Terminals 1-5 opening between 1977 and 2008. When Terminal 5 opened in 2008, it became the first stretch of new Underground railway in London since the Jubilee line extension in 1999.

Key Piccadilly line dates 1906 - The line opens between Finsbury Park and Hammersmith 1907 - A branch line from Holborn to Aldwych opens 1932 to 1933 - The line extends to South Harrow, Arnos Grove, Hounslow West, Uxbridge and Cockfosters 1977 - Heathrow Terminals 1, 2 and 3 open 1986 - The Heathrow service becomes a loop with the opening of Terminal 4 1994 - The Aldwych branch of the Piccadilly line closes down because of too few passengers and high costs 2008 - Heathrow Terminal 5 opens Victoria line Built at the end of the 1960s, the main aim of the Victoria line was to connect four, main line terminals: Euston, St. Pancras, King's Cross and Victoria, although its origins go back to 1943. Future hopes for the Victoria line were included in a document called the County of London Plan, but war and post-war constraints mean that the plans continued to be put on hold.

Parliamentary Powers to build the line were obtained in 1955 but difficulties with funding meant that actual construction work didn't start until 1962. The Victoria line opened in stages between 1968 and 1971, and reached areas of north and south London that had never had an Underground station before. The line was the first automatic passenger railway in the world, fully equipped with an Automatic Train Operation system (ATO). Such technology meant that at the touch of a button, the train doors would close and drive automatically to the next station, guided by coded impulses transmitted through the track. The original 1968 line received a complete upgrade in 2012. Waterloo & City line In 1898, the Waterloo & City line (or 'Drain' as it was known), became London's second, deep-level Tube railway. Initially, it was promoted by the London and South Western Railway company, whose trains terminated at Waterloo. The new line's selling point was that it could offer commuters a direct rail link to and from the City of London.

Wooden-built trains ran on the line until 1940 but were replaced by specially-designed, Tube-sized cars based on the technology of the Southern Railway's trains, but these too were eventually replaced in 1994. In the post-war years, the Waterloo & City line became part of British Railways but it transferred to London Underground in 1994, when it became (at that time), the Underground's 12th line. The London underground at 150 - a birthday journey | UK news | The Guardian 150 years of the underground The London underground at 150 - a birthday journey To celebrate the London underground's 150th birthday, Stephen Moss takes a journey along the Central line – the longest, busiest, reddest tube line of them all Long journey ... the first underground line, between Paddington and Farringdon, opened on 10 January 1863.

Photograph: Alamy Wednesday 9 January 2013 00.21 EST First published on Wednesday 9 January 2013 00.21 EST Share on Messenger Close Twenty years ago there would have been only one possible headline for this odyssey along the entire length of the Central line – "Look back in Ongar". Or perhaps "Look forward in Ongar", since, as the eastern terminus of the line, that sleepy corner of Essex would have been the obvious place to start. But in 1994 Ongar station, underused and loss-making, was closed . "Look back in Epping" just doesn't sound the same, so dammit, I'm starting in Ongar anyway. The current incarnation of the Central line is 46 miles in length, but I'm doing the pre-1994 version. I'm going the extra six miles. Ongar's tube history has been largely written out. A steam train, operated by the Epping Ongar Railway, runs on the line now, carrying small children and whiskery steam enthusiasts.

It was a railway for a century, a volunteer tells me, and only part of the tube from 1957-94, so the reversion is justified. But I reckon it's aesthetic, too. Everyone loves steam trains; who in their right mind gives a hoot about tube trains? When Ongar lost its tube, the locals were devastated. "It was all part of the decline of the town," says the ticket seller, who is also a local councillor. "It used to be an important place in Essex, and had a school, a hospital, the railway. Gradually it all went, and it became a dormitory for London ." I take the steam train from Ongar's pretty station, with its real coal fire, to North Weald, which was also axed in 1994, passing the remnants of Blake Hall , which was closed in 1981 when it had the distinction of being the least used station on the London underground, with just six passengers a day. From North Weald I take the green-liveried heritage bus to Epping, where the Central line now begins.

It is a large car park with a less imposing town attached, and I feel my look back in Ongar has been justified. Ongar ... formerly the eastern terminus of the Central line, where Moss's underground odyssey began. Photograph: Glenn Copus/Evening Standard From Epping I go just one stop – to Theydon Bois. I've never been to Theydon Bois, but have always been captivated by the name, which suggests a Victorian actor-manager or a well-meaning but talentless amateur captain of the England cricket team c 1910. The initial impression is not good. "It's not much of a town, more a forest, really," says the friendly female attendant on the platform. The Station Arms has closed down, and there's a planning application for a block of flats pinned to the door. Further on, however, there are signs of life – a big, bright pub called the Bull, a bakery, butchers, barbers, a dry cleaners, an Indian restaurant – the Theydon Bois Balti House – and an upmarket cafe. Theydon Bois lives .

From Theydon Bois, I ride the east London end of the Central line, with its curious loop around Hainault. Roding Valley (which has inherited Blake Hall's mantle as the least used station on the tube network), Chigwell, Fairlop, Barkingside, Gants Hill. How evocative are those names. Can I do this romantic journey justice? The Central line is the biggest, busiest, fastest and reddest line on the underground, and this trainspotterish ticking off of its 49 stations (as well as its abandoned outposts) is our way of celebrating the tube's 150th birthday . It wasn't the first line – that honour belongs to the Metropolitan Railway, the first underground railway in the world, which ran from Paddington to Farringdon and was opened on 10 January 1863. The Metropolitan Railway was, however, not really a "tube". It was constructed close to the surface using the so-called "cut-and-cover" technique, whereby a trench is dug for the railway and then roofed over, and was a conventional railway with carriages pulled by steam trains.

The stations also resembled their above-ground cousins – look at the cathedral-like platform five at Baker Street, which has been restored to its Victorian glory. Tubes began life in the late 1860s, with a short-lived subway under the Thames along which a single carriage with up to 12 passengers was cable-hauled by two stationary steam engines. That was followed in 1890 by the first electric tube line from the City to Stockwell and, four years later, by the Waterloo and City line. The Central line, which was originally called the Central London Railway and ran from Shepherd's Bush to Bank, was the third tube line, and proved an immediate success when it opened in the summer of 1900. "London, all agape, crowds to the twopenny tube," the Daily Mail reported in the week of its opening. It now costs £8.90 rather than tuppence for a go-anywhere ticket, but the crowds still congregate. Today, in its much-extended form, it remains central to London life, connecting the suburban north-west with the East End, bringing shoppers to Oxford Circus and tourists to Marble Arch, serving God at St Paul's and Mammon at Bank.

Women and children shelter from German bombers in Bethnal Green tube station in 1943. Photograph: Alamy The name Central line was formally adopted in 1937, at the same time as the line was being extended east and west as part of a London-wide integration and expansion programme, though many of the stations built in the late 1930s were not opened until after the second world war. For the duration of the war, those stations – especially in heavily bombed east London – served as air-raid shelters, and the tube tunnels became the sites of factories and warehouses. From 1942-45, armaments company Plessey had a factory producing aircraft components in the 2.5-mile twin tunnels between Leytonstone and Gants Hill. The Central line really has seen it all, and continues to be a touchstone of life in the capital. I stop briefly at Stratford, the shiny, energetic new face of east London, home of the Olympic park and Westfield shopping centre. I like Westfield – the brashness, the anthemic music, the ice rink where the struggles of the young to stay upright feel like a metaphor for life.

I also like the fact that across the road from Westfield the old 1970s Stratford Centre, with its poundshops and market stalls, is still going strong, a haven for elderly East Enders banging on about the war. Two eras side by side. Those elderly locals have good reason to obsess. The second world war had a profound effect on the East End, and on the Central line itself. A bomb hit Bank station in January 1941, killing 56 people , and on 3 March 1943, in the worst civilian disaster of the war, 173 people died at Bethnal Green station . They had been rushing to seek shelter after the air-raid sirens had sounded, when a woman fell at the bottom of the set of stairs that led down to the station from the street. Those behind fell on top of her, and in the panic that followed many were crushed or suffocated. According to John Day and John Reed's The Story of London's Underground , 146 of the 173 who died were women and children.

A plaque with the names of the dead was unveiled to mark the 50th anniversary of the disaster in 1993, and a more elaborate memorial is now being constructed by the Stairway to Heaven Trust . The first phase is complete, but there are posters next to the station entrance appealing for funds to complete it. This is a locally driven act of remembrance. For all the yuppification of the East End, many people have lived hereabouts all their lives and were children during the blitz. They lost friends and relatives in the disaster, and the collective memory is long. New face of the underground ... Stratford station entrance. Photograph: Alamy The Central line now moves out of the East End and into the heart of the West End. The most intriguing station in this middle section is one that no longer exists – British Museum , which was decommissioned in 1933. It used to stand at 133 High Holborn, now a branch of the Nationwide building society. The station was killed off by the proximity of Holborn, more popular because it was an interchange, and I'm pleased to see its supplanter at least has the grace to recognise its phantom existence.

A sign at the top of the escalator at Holborn shows the station's name as Holborn/British Museum. The station featured in the 1935 film Bulldog Jack, and is also reputed to be haunted by the daughter of an Egyptian pharaoh whose screams can occasionally be heard echoing down the tunnels. Oxford Circus is the lynchpin of the Central line. At Ongar, they told me that during the battle to save their station from the cost-cutters they had commissioned a report by accountants Coopers & Lybrand which sought to prove that Oxford Circus was the least productive station on the line because, while it was a destination for thousands, no one bought tickets there. With such statistical sophistry, I can see why their campaign failed. Above ground, Oxford Circus teems. Everyone is selling something. Chuggers energetically chug in the rain; a woman from an eastern religious sect is offering an instant pathway to the Truth; the Topshop sale is peddling its own version of nirvana; a man next to one of the station's many exits is holding up large placards proclaiming a royal-inspired masonic conspiracy. All this hucksterism infects the Central line.

A young man playing the accordion gets on at Oxford Circus; "playing" overstates it – he is striking the keys tunelessly. A young woman with dyed red hair holds a paper cup out. Everyone ignores her. It is all depressingly half-hearted. They order these things better in Paris. The female driver gets wind of his performance, and tells him where to get off – Lancaster Gate, to be precise. Rush hour at Oxford Circus station entrance. Photograph: Alamy Further west, away from Oxford Circus's relentlessness, reposes Holland Park, the best preserved station on the line. The ticket office, with its skylight and green tiling, has a pleasingly antique feel entirely in keeping with the grand houses and sweeping avenues of this affluent part of west London. Here, men still wear overcoats with suede collars, gift shops sell silver shaving brushes for £45, and the local delicatessen stocks pink champagne truffles. Bethnal Green it isn't. The next stop, Shepherd's Bush, is less rarefied. Attempts have been made to beautify the green with pebbledashed walkways and the public loo has been converted into a nightclub, but all in vain. Some places never change.

There is an incongruous piece of public art at one end of the green – Goaloids, by Elliott Brook : two sculptures made from goalposts and erected last year to mark the site of the 1908 Olympic cup final in which Britain beat Denmark 2-0. The sculpture is behind a fence, because this corner of the green is a litter-strewn mudbath. Either it hasn't recovered from the 1908 match, or they've held a rock concert here recently. Shepherd's Bush station, though, is impressive – large, spacious and constructed with the grey steel slabs that give the Jubilee line its monumentalism. The station was rebuilt in 2008 to service the Westfield shopping centre next door – the eastern and western sections of the Central line are twinned in their devotion to Olympic sport and olympian shopping – but this Westfield has less zing than its younger cousin in Stratford. This is just high-end shopping rather than a complete life experience. London's energy now resides in the east. I feel obliged to get off at the next stop, too, to take a sympathetic look at White City, a place forever being abandoned.

The stadium built for the 1908 Olympics has been knocked down – so much for the Olympic legacy – and even the dogs who used to race there have been hounded out. White City has been the home of BBC TV for half a century, but it is now leaving too, and who knows what will happen to Television Centre. Thank goodness Wormwood Scrubs is staying. Central line trains run opposite the prison, travelling quickly as they pass, that characteristic high-pitched whine and the occasional toot on the horn reminding the inmates that everyone but them is escaping this unlovely glass-and-concrete world. End of the line ... West Ruislip tube station. Photograph: Alamy Leaving White City I can feel the lure of West Ruislip at the end of the line. What is it about Ruislip that makes it a national joke? The inherent comedy of the name, I suppose. Leslie Thomas's quintessentially 1970s novel Tropic of Ruislip, with its status- and sex-obsessed suburban couples, hasn't helped. The 70s was the era of sexual awakening and fondue parties, and Thomas's Ruislip came to epitomise it.

What will I discover when I finally get there? I go through the Actons, east, north and west; take the fork to Ealing Broadway for the sheer hell of it; and then set off on the final scenic leg – Hanger Lane, Perivale, Greenford, Northolt, mile after mile of 1930s semis and identikit warehouses. It is almost dark when I reach West Ruislip, and I'm exhausted. They say the man who is tired of the Central line is tired of life, but the walk from White City station to the Scrubs in a heavy squall has done for me. My spirits are not lifted by the immediate prospect as I leave the station. There is an off-licence, an Indian takeaway and the stop for buses to Uxbridge, all huddled together on a flyover. "Is there a town here?" I ask one of the natives. "Sort of," says the man. "Turn right at the crossroads at the bottom of the road, and you'll come to Ickenham." Ruislip, despite having three stations named after it – South Ruislip and Ruislip Gardens as well as West Ruislip – appears not to exist.

It is a music-hall joke; a literary conceit; a state of mind; a flyover in the middle of nowhere. How has Ruislip survived while poor Ongar, whose existence I can vouch for, was obliterated from the map? I should be filled with a sense of achievement at the end of my journey, yet I feel only emptiness. On the road to Ickenham I stop at a pub called the Soldiers Return for a red wine and a packet of Quavers. In Tropic of Ruislip, Thomas portrayed a world where "dreams were regularly dreamed, ambitions thwarted … love visited and sex sniffed around". I sense none of that sexual energy, that unquenchable lust, in the Soldiers Return, where the TV screens are showing the football results, the regulars are discussing what they got for Christmas, and the abiding question for me is whether the pub's name should have an apostrophe. The Chinese philosopher Laozi was right. "A good traveller has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving." To expect to find meaning at the end of the line is naive.

No doubt Odysseus experienced the same sense of anticlimax when he finally made it back to Ithaca from Troy, and he hadn't even had the consolation of visiting Theydon Bois. • This article was amended on 9 January 2013. The original referred to the Topshop sale pedalling, rather than peddling, its own version of nirvana. This has been corrected. West Ruislip station | UK Transport Wiki | Fandom powered by Wikia Template:Portal-inline Coordinates : 51°34′11″N 0°26′14″W﻿ / ﻿51.5696°N 0.4373°W﻿ / 51.5696; -0.4373 </td></tr> </table> West Ruislip is a Network Rail station located on Ickenham Road between Ickenham and Ruislip in western Greater London ; it is served by both London Underground (LU) and National Rail trains on independent platforms. It is the western terminus of the LU Central Line 's West Ruislip branch, with Ruislip Gardens as the next Underground station towards central London.

National Rail services are provided by Chiltern Railways , West Ruislip is between South Ruislip and Denham . The station is managed by Chiltern Railways . [4] Contents File:Harrow, Neasden, Northholt & Northholt Road RJD 145.jpg 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 , although the introduction of Metropolitan Green Belt caused the extension to be cut back to West Ruislip. Had the extension been built in full, the next station would have been Harefield Road . Preparatory work on this extension had started just before the war and a section of trackbed had been constructed for the extension can be seen 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. [5] Transport links London bus routes U1 and U10. The station today Edit West Ruislip station is aligned approximately east-west with the main station buildings on the road overbridge across the lines at the western end of the station. The station has four platforms; two each for London Underground and National Rail services. The London Underground tracks are south of the National Rail ones and operate from an island platform whilst the National Rail platforms are outside of their tracks. The National Rail platforms are also served by a separate station building north of the tracks and adjacent to the car park. A single weekday service from Gerrards Cross calls at the station at 1012 hrs (as of July 2009), running non-stop to London Paddington .

It traverses the rarely used former main line between Northolt Park Junction and Old Oak Common Junction, in many places reduced to a single track. This section is used more frequently by freight and waste trains, and by diversions during engineering works. The return service leaves Paddington at 1120 hrs, calling first at Gerrards Cross, and terminating at Princes Risborough . In a legacy of the original scheme to continue the extension to Denham, the Central Line tracks continue for a short distance beyond the station before ending at buffers. The intended alignment of the unbuilt tracks can be seen from the width of the unused railway land south of the existing tracks. The Central Line's Ruislip depot is east of West Ruislip station, and has a connection via a shunting neck to the Network Rail westbound track west of the station to allow rolling stock and material deliveries. The depot also has a connection to the Uxbridge branch tracks of the Metropolitan and Piccadilly Lines which pass under the Central Line east of West Ruislip; it is used only for empty stock movements and works train access. Two sidings west of the station to the north of the running lines provide layover facilities for works trains.

There are ticket barriers at the main entrance to the station; these control access to the Central Line platforms from the public highway and from the pedestrian walkway linking the car park to the station. The Chiltern platforms can be reached from the car park walkway without tickets, as no ticket barriers are installed to control access.

Nearby places Train times and station information for West Ruislip station from National Rail <tr style="text-align: center;"> <td rowspan="1" style="vertical-align: middle; border-left: 0px none; border-bottom: 0px none; border-right: 1px #aaa solid; border-top: 1px #aaa solid;">Terminus </td> <td rowspan="1" style="border-left: 0px none; border-bottom: 0px none; border-right: 0px none; border-top: 1px #aaa solid; width: 8px; background-color: #{{{{{system}}} color|{{{line}}}}}"></td> <td rowspan="1" style="vertical-align: middle; border-bottom: 0px none;">{{{{{system}}} lines|{{{line}}}}}</td> <td rowspan="1" style="border-left: 0px none; border-bottom: 0px none; border-right: 0px none; border-top: 1px #aaa solid; width: 8px; background-color: #{{{{{system}}} color|{{{line}}}}}"></td><td rowspan="1" style="vertical-align: middle;

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="1" style="vertical-align: middle; border-left: 1px #aaa solid; border-bottom: 0px none; border-right: 0px none; border-top: 1px #aaa solid;"> Central Line - The London Transport Forum Central Line Length: 46 Miles/ 74 km No.

of Stations: 49 Night Service: Partial Current Stock: 1992 Tube Stock The Central Line runs east – west right through the centre of London and serves the City of London and the West End, at 76 km (47 miles) it is the longest London Underground Line and also the busiest with around 260 million passengers per year. The line runs from Epping in Essex and Hainault & Woodford in East London to Ealing Broadway in West London & West Ruislip in North West London and the name comes from the fact that it goes through Central London. It has the highest point to point speeds on London Underground reaching up to 70 mph. History Despite being originally incorporated in 1891 and a further extension authorised in 1892 the opening date of the then Central London Railway (CLR) was postponed to 1894 and 1899 then eventually opening on 27th June 1900.

The CLR ran between Shepherds Bush and the Bank of England completely underground and after a proposal to extend it into a loop line via Charing Cross, Hyde Park and Hammersmith was rejected a western extension to Wood Lane was opened in 1908 where the line looped back into the City. In 1912 the CLR was also extended in the east to Liverpool Street and to the west again over Great Western Railway (GWR) Lines to Ealing in 1920. After the formation of the London Passenger Transport Board the CLR was renamed the ‘Central London Line’ on 1st July 1933 and then simplified to Central Line on 23rd August 1937. Tunnels were originally built at a diameter of 11′ 8.25″ but were expanded and realigned in the 1930s and stations were lengthened.

The line was converted to 4th rail electrification in 1940 but due to the way the tunnel had been enlarged the tunnels were no longer round and for clearance purposes the positive rail had to be an unusual shape which meant the top contact surface is 40mm (1.6″) higher than normal which is still the case today. Because of this at most of the Central Lines Deep Level Stations the insulating pots can be seen standing on cement mounds and all 92 stock trains have special positive shoe detectors that are able to lift higher than normal, due to this and the fact that 92 stock trains have no tripcocks due to ato operation and clearance problems with their gearboxes they cannot run on any other lines. The high positive rail is only seen on the CLR section of the railway between White City and Liverpool Street.

The sections of the railway under the City of London follow the surface streets above to take advantage of the government allowing railways to do so free of charge rather than going underneath buildings which means just as the roads above there are very sharp curves and bends between Liverpool Street and St Pauls, the Central Line platforms at Bank station itself are very curved so you can’t see one end of the platform from the other and due to this leave very large gaps between the trains and the platforms, more so from 2 of the 4 doors per carriage. The doors which are furthest away from the platform depends on the platform and the ‘Mind The Gap’ Announcement is particularly stressed at Bank. The line was unofficially known as the ‘Twopenny Tube’ by many people due to the fact that for many years the line has a fare of 2d (two old pence). In 1912 plans were published for an extension from Shepherds Bush to Gunnersbury with stations at Hammersmith Grove, Peddenswick Road, Rylett Road, Stamford Gardens, Turnham Green and Heathfield Terrace and would have allowed trains to run on to Richmond, this route was authorised in 1913 but work never started before WW1.

In 1919 an alternative route was published which instead used the disused London and South Western Railway (L&SWR) tracks south of Shepherds Bush to Hammersmith and Turnham Green, this route was authorised in 1920 but work never started and in 1932 the Piccadilly Line took over the L&SWR Lines west of Hammersmith. As part of the ‘New Works Programme’, in June 1935 London Transport announced proposals to extend the Central Line from North Acton to West Ruislip by adding two additional GWR tracks for Central Line use as well as a further extension to Denham although the latter was abandoned due to the establishment of the Metropolitan Green Belt around London which restricted development in the area. They also proposed an extension eastwards from Liverpool Street to somewhere where it will connect with the Loughton and Grange Hill Lines so that trains could possibly run from those areas direct to the West End and beyond with passing over the busy London & North Eastern Railway (LNER), it was proposed to perhaps run the line to somewhere near Leyton and Newbury Park to achieve this.

In December 1946 the eastern extension opened as far as Stratford with trains reversing in a temporary reversing facility at Drapers Field in Leyton and the line to Woodford and Newbury Park opened in 1947. The LNER line from Newbury Park to Ilford closed in 1947 and the Central Line took over the line from Newbury Park to Woodford in 1948 as well as the Woodford to Buckhurst Hill section. In 1947 an extension from North Acton to Greenford opened where trains were terminating in the bay platform, the line was extended further to West Ruislip opened in 1948. The line never went to Denham due to the Metropolitan Green Belt and the bay platform at Greenford is now used by National Rail Trains from Paddington. In 1949 the line was extended even further east to Epping taking over the line from British Rail, the line went even further in 1957 taking over British Rail lines to Ongar.

Short platforms at Blake Hall & North Weald Stations and limited power supply east of Epping meant that trains from London couldn’t run through to Ongar and so they terminated at Epping with a shuttle to Ongar initially operating from Loughton although later from Epping. The expected levels of use never materialised and the line started losing money and so was closed on 30th September 1994 and sold to the Pilot Group. The connection at Epping was removed shortly after closure but the rest of the line remained intact and is now used by a heritage passenger rail service known as the Epping Ongar Railway owned by Epping Ongar Railway Ltd. The EOR started in October 2004 and runs from Ongar to Coopersale where it turns back, the line stops at North Weald although not at Blake Hall which was removed in 1981 after the closure of the station. On 25th January 2003 a train derailed at Chancery Line after a traction motor fell onto the track injuring 32 passengers, the line was closed to determine the cause and to make the appropriate train modifications.

In March of the same year a limited service was running on either side of the affected area which eventually covered all stations at a reduced frequency on 12th April 2003 with a full service running again by the end of the month. The Waterloo & City Line briefly closed at the same time but quickly reopened after modifications to their small fleet of trains were carried out. Another train derailed at points east of the westbound platform at White City on 11th May 2004 but this was a rather minor incident with no reported injuries, the line was closed between Marble Arch and North Acton whilst the cause was being investigated. Three carriages derailed on the westbound line between Mile End and Bethnal Green at about 9am on 5th July 2007 due to a roll of tarpaulin from a storage yard close to the line, the line was closed between Liverpool Street and Leytonstone and re-opened 2 days later. A Central Line train struck a track-side object near Holland Park on 31st October 2012, the line was closed between Marble Arch and White City and caused severe delays on the rest of the line.

There were no reported injuries but 200 people had to be rescued from stuck trains. Rolling Stock From opening in 1900 the line used electric locomotive hauling cars with large unsprung weight, these proved unsatisfactory and caused a huge amount of vibration. The trains were replaced in 1903 with motor cars with the existing cars being adapted for use a trailers in the newly formed Electric Multiple Units. The rolling stock was in need of replacing by the 1920s but the new Standard Stock were too large for use in the Central Line tunnels so instead it was decided to modernise the existing fleet, the end gates were removed and replaced by more passenger areas and two single leaf sliding doors were added to each side of the cars. Additional trains were also purchased for the opening of the Ealing Broadway extension which were also briefly used on the Bakerloo Line Watford extension. In 1939 the tunnels were enlarged and the electrical supply modified to allow for Standard Stock trains displaced from the Northern Line to run on the line and all 1900/03 and 1920 Stock Trains were replaced.

However by the 1950s the trains were becoming increasingly unreliable and they planned to replace them with production versions of the prototype 1960 Stock trains although they instead decided to go with new 1962 Stock trains which were identical to the 1959 Stock, these operated until replacement in the 90s by 1992 Stock Trains which still run today. The Epping – Ongar Branch was not electrified until 1957 prior to which they were run by steam-hauled coaches by BR, once electrified the line ran two car 1935 Stock trains and later replaced with four car 1962 Stock trains modified for the limited current which ran until closure in 1994. The 1967 stock previously used on the Victoria Line were used on the Hainault – Woodard section until 1984 which was converted to Automatic Train Operation (ATO) to trial the system for the Victoria Line.

The line currently uses 8 car 1992 Stock trains which were gradually introduced from April 1993 to February 1995 and was completed on 17th February 1995 and was the first London Underground line to have automated announcements. The line was fitted with automatic train operation (ATO) in 1996 and was brought into service in sections. In August 2011 a refresh of the trains started which included new seat covers featuring the new London Underground Moquette, modified window frames, new lighting and changes to the front ends of the driving cars which are now majority instead of majority black. Future If the proposed Chelsea-Hackney Line is built it is planned to take over the Central Line between Leytonstone & Epping and trains will run only via Hainault and trains that would have normally terminated at Epping, Debden or Loughton will terminate at Hainault or Woodford instead.

When London Overground took over the East London Line a new station at Shoreditch High Street was opened which is directly above the Central Line tracks between Bethnal Green and Liverpool Street and it has been proposed to build new Central Line platforms at Shoreditch High Street station and create an interchange between the Central Line and London Overground. The proposals are currently on hold but TfL have said that the plans will be revisited once Crossrail is completed in 2018. The Central Line won’t receive new trains until after the Bakerloo and Piccadilly Lines which have older stock and the Waterloo & City Line which runs the same stock but would be quicker to replace, TfL have started working with train manufacturers on making a concept for a Standard Stock train which is due to run on the Bakerloo, Central, Piccadilly and Waterloo & City Lines and then proposed to go on the rest of the Deep Level lines, the Sub Surface Lines are already having new standard sub surface stock being rolled out. The London Borough of Hillingdon have approached TfL to try and get the Central Line extended to Uxbridge, the line will branch off by Ruislip Depot and join onto the Metropolitan and Piccadilly Line tracks to Uxbridge.

TfL have said that the line will only become viable when the Metropolitan Line’s signalling upgrade is completed in 2017. Depots West Ruislip Tube Station - Every Station in LondonEvery Station in London Posted on August 28, 2013 by Ciaran Kenny Very clearly a British Rail (now Network Rail (formerly Railtrack)) station and very clearly of the 1960s when a rebuild of West Ruislip Station was finished after several decades of sluggish work. These days it is used by both Chiltern Railways and the Central Line from separate adjacent platforms. The station first opened in 1906 with the name ‘Ruislip & Ickenham’. In 1947 the name was changed to ‘West Ruislip (for Ickenham)’ and the parenthesised appendage was dropped sometime in the 1960s. The eagle-eyed amongst you will, of course, already have noticed that the route map I have shown at Holland Park still shows the old name.

Bikes London Underground Lines | BritainVisitor - Travel Guide To Britain List of London Underground Lines Tube Lines in London The London Underground aka "The Underground" or "The Tube," presently has 11 lines serving over a billion passengers a year in addition to the Docklands Light Railway (DLR) and the Overground network. The Oyster Card, introduced in 2003, is the best way to journey on the tube, the DLR, the Overground and London's buses. London Tube Lines Bakerloo Line The Bakerloo Line runs from Harrow & Wealdstone in north west London to Elephant & Castle south of the River Thames and is colour-coded brown on tube maps. Central Line The Central Line runs from West Ruislip in west London to Epping in east London and is colour-coded red. Circle Line The Circle Line runs in a spiral from Hammersmith to Edgware Road and then in a loop around central London back to Edgware Road. The Circle Line is colour-coded yellow on London tube maps.

District Line Ruislip Gardens tube station | UK Transport Wiki | Fandom powered by Wikia Ruislip Gardens tube station London Underground annual entry and exit 2004 Ruislip Gardens is a London Underground station. It lies on the Central Line , between West Ruislip and South Ruislip , in Travelcard Zone 5 . Contents Edit The tracks through the station were laid by part of the Great Western and Great Central Joint Railway with services starting on 2 April 1906 although there was no station at Ruislip Gardens at that time. The station opened on 9 July 1934. [3] As part of the 1935-40 New Works Programme , 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 service as far as Denham, but work was delayed by the Second World War and the terminus of the extension was cut back to West Ruislip, with services starting on 21 November 1948.

[3] 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. The station today Edit 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. 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. Local places of note RAF Northolt is close by. Polish War Memorial is also close by.

References in popular culture The station achieved poetic immortality in John Betjeman 's poem Middlesex: Gaily into Ruislip Gardens Booking hall, 1955 <tr style="text-align: center;"> <td rowspan="1" style="vertical-align: middle; border-left: 0px none; border-bottom: 0px none; border-right: 1px #aaa solid; border-top: 1px #aaa solid;">Terminus </td> <td rowspan="1" style="border-left: 0px none; border-bottom: 0px none; border-right: 0px none; border-top: 1px #aaa solid; width: 8px; background-color: #{{{{{system}}} color|{{{line}}}}}"></td> <td rowspan="1" style="vertical-align: middle; border-bottom: 0px none;">{{{{{system}}} lines|{{{line}}}}}</td> <td rowspan="1" style="border-left: 0px none; border-bottom: 0px none; border-right: 0px none; border-top: 1px #aaa solid; width: 8px; background-color: #{{{{{system}}} color|

{{{line}}}}}"></td><td rowspan="1" style="vertical-align: middle; border-left: 1px #aaa solid; border-bottom: 0px none; border-right: 0px none; border-top: 1px #aaa solid;">Terminus </td> </tr> <tr style="text-align: center;"> <td rowspan="1" style="vertical-align: middle; border-left: 0px none; border-bottom: 0px none; border-right: 1px #aaa solid; border-top: 1px #aaa solid;"> towards [[ Template:S-line/LUL left/Central tube station| Template:S-line/LUL left/Central ]] </td> <td rowspan="1" style="border-left: 0px none; border-bottom: 0px none; border-right: 0px none; border-top: 1px #aaa solid; width: 8px; background-color: #DC241F"></td> <td rowspan="1" style="vertical-align: middle; border-bottom: 0px none;"> Central line </td> <td rowspan="1" style="border-left: 0px none; border-bottom: 0px none;

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Return from Woodford to West Ruislip - Central Line 09. Return from Woodford to West Ruislip - Central Line Product Code [LTR09] Central Line A return cab ride journey aboard “1992” Stock on The Central Line from Woodford to West Ruislip travelling via Chigwell, Notting Hill Gate & Greenford. Calling at the following locations. Roding Valley, Chigwell, Grange Hill, Hainault, Fairlop, Barkingside, Newbury Park, Gants Hill, Redbridge, Wanstead, Leytonstone, Leyton, Stratford, Mile End, Bethnal Green, Liverpool Street, Bank, St.Pauls, Chancery Lane, Holborn, Tottenham Court Road, Oxford Circus, Bond Street, Marble Arch, Lancaster Gate, Queensway, Notting Hill Gate, Holland Park, Shepherds Bush, White City, East Acton, North Acton, Hangar Lane, Perivale, Greenford, Northolt, South Ruislip & Ruislip Gardens terminating at West Ruislip. Then the return journey. Note: Beneath the streets of London some tunnel distances have been shortened but all the underground stations are featured.

Running Time: 114 minutes (1hr 51mins) Related Products Write an online review and share your thoughts with other shoppers! Reviewer: Dan from UK This is a drivers eye view of the London Underground Central line in its glory years of an enhanced service. Beginning at Woodford we are privy to seeing a train enter service from the reversing siding, before beginning our journey to and from West Ruislip. It is interesting to note that these cab rides are clearly filmed on more than one different train, this is made obvious by the trains differing destination announcements. Both routes are pretty much the same, except that on the return to Woodford you get to see the train enter the reversing siding, in between Notting Hill Gate and Shepherd's Bush we get to see a train ahead due to line congestion, some of the driving is in coded manual, and most annoying of all is this rather loud air conditioning that gets switched on after leaving Leytonstone Westbound. I understand a driver has a right to switch the air con on, but as a viewer this sound does get annoying. Thankfully this is only on the westbound route.

One of the things that makes this dvd unique is that due to it being filmed around 2002ish, the 1992 stock trains travel at their full 100kph speed due to the unrestricted atp at the time. Since 2003 this has been restricted to 85 and to this day lul have never restored it. As this was also filmed before 2003 the trains communications equipment was still using the pleasant dulcet tones of the original train's announcer Janet Mayo. Sadly this dvd is one of the few pieces of media available to feature this. At this time the central line's west end stations are still in their unrefurbished classic look, remember the wrapping paper, and snakes and ladders? With the likes of Wood lane station still also in situ as there was no Westfields. The tunnel sections have been largely cut due to Paul thinking it wouldn't sell very well with large sections of dark tunnel. However I disagree, I think you can actually see the tunnel to an extent thanks to the trains headlights. It is however interesting to see the train passing through closed stations due to a fire department strike.

This dvd doesn't really have any extra features, and I think you should only order this if you are interested in the London Underground, or if you wish to see the Central line with it's classic looking west end stations full speed running, and the original digital announcements. Because of the picture quality I give this a 4 out of 5, however it is a good drivers eye view, and I have even used it as reference material for a personal project. Mini Cart

Question: Which London Underground line has a terminus at West Ruislip?
Answer: CENTRAL