CTA To Close Washington Red Line Stop for Two Years
By Scott Smith in News on Oct 12, 2006 4:00PM
While walking downtown yesterday, we noticed a sign at the Washington stop on the 
Red Line that said it’d be closed due to construction. Maybe we’ve got CTA Fatigue, but we shrugged it off and expected it’d be only closed for the weekend.
Folks, reading really is fundamental.
Later that day, friend of Chicagoist and Chicago Transit Status webmaster Tony Coppoletta e-mailed us a link to a CTA press release that says starting at midnight on Monday, October 23, the station will be closed for up to two years. Transfers from the Blue Line at Washington will not be allowed; you’ll have to transfer at Jackson instead. Customers who need elevator access will need to board at the Jackson Red Line stop.
Tony clarifies how this will affect most riders and tries to see the bright side:
“It actually only closes one entrance to the State Street Subway, which will be the Washington-Madison entrance. There are entrances on both adjacent blocks —Madison-Monroe entrance leads to the Monroe stop. Randolph-Washington normally serves both Lake and Washington, being right between the two stops, but will remain open and simply lead people only down to the Lake stop."
Why is the closure taking place at all? Blame it on the construction of Kruesi's Kastle, the “superstation” being built at Block 37 that no has asked for but the CTA is required to build now that they’ve received funding for it.
In other CTA news, the agency will issue $275 million in bonds so that they can purchase new buses and side-facing rail cars. We’ve written about the buses before, which will be “short buses” that are easier to navigate. You offered your thoughts on the side-facing rail cars here.