Washington/Wabash   100N 44E
Chicago 'L' rapid transit station
General information
Location	29 N. Wabash Avenue Chicago, Illinois 60602
Coordinates	41°52′58″N 87°37′34″W / 41.882900°N 87.626205°W / 41.882900; -87.626205
Owned by	City of Chicago
Line(s)	Loop Elevated
Platforms	2 Side platforms
Tracks	2
Connections	Metra: Millennium Station
Construction
Structure type	Elevated
Accessible	Yes
History
Opened	August 31, 2017; 6 years ago (2017-08-31) [1]
Passengers
2020	1,082,287 [2]  65.4%
Rank	11 out of 143
Services
Preceding station Chicago "L" Following station State/Lake One-way operation Orange Line Adams/Wabash toward Midway State/Lake toward Harlem/Lake Green Line Adams/Wabash toward Ashland/63rd or Cottage Grove State/Lake One-way operation Purple Line Express Adams/Wabash toward Linden Pink Line Adams/Wabash toward 54th/Cermak State/Lake toward Kimball Brown Line Adams/Wabash One-way operation
Former services Preceding station Chicago "L" Following station Randolph/Wabash Closed 2017 One-way operation Orange Line Adams/Wabash toward Midway Randolph/Wabash Closed 2017 toward Harlem/Lake Green Line Adams/Wabash toward Ashland/63rd or Cottage Grove Randolph/Wabash Closed 2017 One-way operation Purple Line Express Adams/Wabash toward Linden Pink Line Adams/Wabash toward 54th/Cermak Randolph/Wabash Closed 2017 toward Kimball Brown Line Adams/Wabash One-way operation
Track layout Legend Green to Harlem/Lake Brown to Kimball Washington St. Madison St. Purple Express to Linden Orange to Midway Pink to 54th/Cermak Green to Ashland/63rd or Cottage Grove
Location

Washington/Wabash is an 'L' station on the CTA's Brown, Green, Orange, Pink, and Purple Lines. The station opened on August 31, 2017. ^[3] It serves as a consolidation and replacement of the Randolph/Wabash and Madison/Wabash stations. The project was undertaken by the Chicago Department of Transportation. Construction of the $75 million station began in 2015, following the closure of Madison/Wabash in March 2015 and was completed in August 2017. The station is located between Washington and Madison Streets on Wabash Avenue in the Loop.

In 2018, the new station was recognized with an award of excellence by the American Institute of Architects, Chicago chapter. ^[4]

History

Before the construction of Washington/Wabash station, two stations were taking the place of the current station: Madison/Wabash station and Randolph/Wabash station. Both stations opened on November 8, 1896, as part of construction on the Wabash portion of the Loop Elevated. ^[5]

The CTA had proposed consolidating the two stations since November 1981. ^{[6] [5]} A similar consolidation project occurred in July 1995, with the opening of Washington/Wells station, a replacement station of both Madison/Wells station and Randolph/Wells station. ^[7] In September 1998, the CTA proposed a $29 million superstation replacing both Madison/Wabash station and State/Lake station; this plan never happened. ^{[6] [8]}

In April 2003, the CTA worked with and gave $1 million to the Chicago Department of Transportation (CDOT) to start preliminary work on a future consolidated station between Madison/Wabash and Randolph/Wabash stations. Ten years later on September 30, 2013, the final design of the new station was unveiled. The station was priced at $75 million, which was funded by the federal Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality (CMAQ) program. ^{[6] [9]} The new station was planned to be ADA-accessible unlike its predecessor stations. With the removal of the two original stations, travel time and maintenance cost on the Wabash section would be reduced. ^[10] Although construction on the new station was planned to begin in fall 2014, it was delayed to March 2015. On March 16, 2015, as part of construction, Madison/Wabash station was closed permanently. ^{[11] [6]} The new consolidated station opened on August 31, 2017. ^[8] Randolph/Wabash station then closed three days later on September 3 in favor of the newly opened station. ^[12]

Bus connections

CTA

• J14 Jeffery Jump
• 20 Madison (Owl Service)
• 56 Milwaukee
• 60 Blue Island/26th (Owl Service)
• 124 Navy Pier
• 147 Outer DuSable Lake Shore Express
• 151 Sheridan
• 157 Streeterville/Taylor (Weekdays only)

References

External links

Media related to Washington/Wabash station at Wikimedia Commons

• Official website
• Washington/Wabash at Chicago-L.org