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South Ruislip is a London Underground and Chiltern Railways joint station. On the Central Line it lies between Ruislip Gardens and Northolt, in Zone 5.
The GWR/CGR Joint line to High Wycombe carried services from both Paddington and Marylebone. They met at Northolt Junction, from where four tracks ran westwards to Ruislip Gardens and West Ruislip; there the route shrank to two tracks only. Opened in May 1908 and originally known as Northolt Junction, the station became South Ruislip and Northolt Junction from September 1932 and received its present name in July 1942.
At the time of the Chiltern Line improvements some years ago, the manual signal box was removed, and its function replaced by colour light signalling and power operated points, both controlled from Marylebone. The track alignments were improved to allow higher speed running at the junction for the services from Marylebone, and the pointwork which had allowed trains from Paddington to call at the westbound Chiltern station platform was removed. All eastbound services were moved to the former through road; the eastbound road, which had formerly extended from the platform road at West Ruislip, was closed and lifted, and the eastbound platform widened. The alignment of the turnout towards Marylebone was improved to allow higher-speed running. Fragments of the old trackwork can still be seen to the north of the line at this point.
A large GLC bulk rubbish handling depot lies east of the stations with running links to the line from Paddington; a daily waste train operation enlivens a traveller's wait.
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