Ruislip is well connected for a suburb that has mostly stopped commuting. The broadband is excellent. The buses come often. Hardly anyone takes the train to work any more.
West Ruislip and South Ruislip stations both serve the area, and the station at Ruislip itself opened on 4 July 1904, days after the first train ran on the new line. The railway built the suburb. At the 2021 census only about 2% of working residents took a train to work, and about 3% took the bus, even though there are 209 bus stops across the area. In 1904 the trains brought ramblers out for afternoon tea, and today the best-loved railway in Ruislip is the miniature one running through the woods by the lido.
Ruislip's commute is mostly the kitchen table and the car. About 40% of workers were working from home at the 2021 census, a pandemic-year figure, and about 35% drove. About 17% of households have no car and about 36% have two or more. The suburb Metro-land sold on the train now gets about on four wheels.
The Department for Transport's modelled journey-time statistics put the nearest town centre about 8 minutes away by car, 10 by bike, 13 by public transport and 17 on foot. Seventeen minutes is a walk people will actually do.
The same modelled statistics cover everyday trips. A GP is about 7 minutes by car, 9 by public transport and 10 on foot. A food shop is about 7 minutes by car and 8 on foot, and the nearest employment centre about 7 by car or 16 by public transport. Hospital is the outlier, at about 18 minutes by car and 37 by public transport. All of these are area averages, with the public transport times dating from 2019, so the bus-based figures are the most likely to have aged.
The buses themselves run often. The stops with timetable data average about 316 departures each weekday and about 17 in the peak hour, and 181 of the 182 stops have a weekend service. A stop here is an actual service, and Ruislip residents mostly drive past it.
Broadband is the strongest part of the picture. About 93% of premises can get gigabit broadband, 94% ultrafast and 99% superfast, and no premises fall below the legal minimum. Mobile coverage is complete on every network. For the 40% working from home, this matters more than any timetable.
Road noise is where all those cars show up. On the official noise mapping, practically every postcode in the area sits near or above 65 decibels, the level at which road noise counts as significant, and the loudest band reaches 75. Rail noise is a separate source and smaller, with about 8% of postcodes near the 65-decibel mark and nothing above it. Standing in the back garden at rush hour gives a better sense of a particular house than any map.
For electric cars there are 16 public charge points in the area with 63 connectors between them, eight of them rapid. With eight rapid connectors, topping up can happen during the shopping, though home charging still does most of the work.
For a typical working week, Ruislip works best for someone who works from home or drives a short way. The buses fill the gaps and the stations are there for the days a train makes sense. The suburb was laid out for a daily train into town and is now lived in by people who mostly don't need one.
Ruislip is better connected than most of its residents now need: the broadband and buses are strong, and the trains that built the place play a much smaller part than they used to.