Washington station (CTA Red Line)

File:Washington Stop.jpg

File:20040708 02 State St. Subway @ Washington.jpg

The platform at Washington is part of a long continuous platform beneath State Street which runs from the Jackson station to the Lake station, making it the United States' longest continuous passenger platform. There are two mezzanines for the station, a northern at Randolph shared with the Lake station and a southern at Madison. There are stairs and escalators along State Street between Randolph and Madison to access both mezzanines. Additionally, Washington is equipped with an elevator to the Randolph mezzanine and was therefore accessible to people with disabilities. There is another elevator between that mezzanine and State Street, which is still in use for access to the Lake station.

There were two stairways on the platform to a lower level pedestrian tunnel that connected the Washington station to the Washington station in the Milwaukee–Dearborn subway, to allow transfers between the Red and Blue Lines. Lake station to the north of Washington and Washington station were originally a single station, but they were separated on June 2, 1996, due to the renovation project of the Randolph-Washington mezzanine and Lake became an independent station on November 18, 1997, in order to better facilitate transfers between the Red Line subway and the elevated State/Lake station.

As part of the development of 108 North State Street (known as Block 37), The City of Chicago planned to construct a superstation located under the Block 37 mall. Washington/State station, and the lower level transfer tunnel to the Blue Line closed at midnight on October 23, 2006, for work related to the construction of this new station.{{cite press release |url=http://www.transitchicago.com/cta-red-line-washington-subway-station-to-temporarily-close-monday-October-23/?Month=10&Year=2006 |title=Washington (Red Line) Subway Station Closure |publisher=CTA |access-date=October 19, 2006 |date=2006-10-19 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180613112005/https://www.transitchicago.com/cta-red-line-washington-subway-station-to-temporarily-close-monday-October-23/?Month=10&Year=2006 |archive-date=2018-06-13}}

Following cost overruns of $100 million, the superstation was indefinitely mothballed in June 2008.{{cite news|url=http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20080611/NEWS10/200029790/cta-to-halt-over-budget-superstation|title=CTA to halt over-budget superstation|last=Hinz|first=Greg|date=June 11, 2008|work=ChicagoBusiness.com|publisher=Crain Communications|accessdate=June 11, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221206080039/https://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20080611/NEWS10/200029790/cta-to-halt-over-budget-superstation |archive-date=2022-12-06}} The Block 37 superstation which had already been partially built, was left abandoned. The Washington/State station was still closed, and the station's platform reopened in February 2010. The station remained closed and trains never resumed stopping at the station.

When the CTA closed the Washington/State station, the station was left intact. No work was performed to improve the Washington-Madison mezzanine in the case that a reopening was considered. The platform changed little except for the removal of its signage. Washington/State was removed from CTA rail maps in January 2009.{{cite web |url=http://www.chicagocarless.com/2009/01/23/who-stole-the-l-stop-at-washingtonstate |title = Who Stole the 'L' Stop at Washington/State? |website= CHICAGO CARLESS |first=Mike |last=Doyle | date=January 23, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090126042410/http://chicagocarless.com/2009/01/23/who-stole-the-l-stop-at-washingtonstate |archive-date=2009-01-26}}

Due to its location, the Washington station is still easily accessible for pedestrian access via the Lake and Monroe stations.

As of October 2019, the CTA does not consider the station to have closed permanently, but there are currently no plans to reopen the station.{{cite AV media |via=YouTube |publisher=CTA Connections |title=CTA's Ride the Rails: Red Line to 95th/Dan Ryan Real-time (2019) |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S68x-3Qgczs |access-date=2023-09-29 |language=en |date=2019-10-14}}

{{reflist}}

• {{Commons category-inline|Washington station (CTA Red Line)}}
• [http://www.chicago-l.org/stations/washington-state.html Washington/State Station Page] at Chicago-L.org

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Category:CTA Red Line stations

Category:Railway stations in the United States opened in 1943

Category:1943 establishments in Illinois

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Category:Defunct Chicago "L" stations

Category:Railway stations in the United States closed in 2006