Comments on: Who Stole the ‘L’ Stop at Washington/State?

By: Daley Off the Rails on O’Hare Fast-Train Idea? | CHICAGO CARLESS

Daley Off the Rails on O’Hare Fast-Train Idea? | CHICAGO CARLESS — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 19:17:49 +0000

[...] last attempt to adopt a fast-train airport plan? Last year I summed up that debacle in a link-laden post here on Carless. The [...]

By: Mike Doyle

Mike Doyle — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 21:52:43 +0000

Richard, I believe that was just a badly done map on the CTA’s part, trying to indicate elevator access was from the Washington/Randolph mezzanine while at the same time indicating that access was to the Lake station, to the north. The only elevator down to the platform level at the Randolph/Lake mezzanine goes to what is now Lake. It should be noted that previously, Lake did not exist as a station stop. So the confusing placement of the wheelchair symbols on the old map may simply be an artifact of the pre mid-1990s time when there was only one station stop here.

By: Richard Duda

Richard Duda — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 20:55:48 +0000

…and if you can NOT walk (or roll) NORTH from the Washington or Monroe areas of the platform to the Lake area of the platform (where there >is< and elevator…), then how do you exit if you're in a wheelchair? I guess you have to only use Lake or Jackson, since Monroe is not ADA accessible. (?) That leaves a bit more of a gap between those stations, which the OLD map implies was filled by an ADA-accessible Washington. (?)

By: Richard Duda

Richard Duda — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 20:50:40 +0000

Ummm… OK. (?) But wasn’t there an elevator from the mezzanine down to the Washington >>platform<< or was that shared the State/Lake as well?

Now, you've got me interested in going back there, with my camera, reporter's pad and pencil!

By: Mike Doyle

Mike Doyle — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 20:45:15 +0000

In actuality, Richard, it was the Randolph/Washington mezzanine entrance to the Red Line that was and still remains accessible. (In the Loop, the subway entrances are located midblock, not at intersections.) The entrance connects to both the Lake and Washington stations, and elevator access from the street down to the Lake platform was retained throughout the construction of Block 37. Of course, that still doesn’t mean Mayor Daley doesn’t owe Chicago its ‘L’ station back.

By: Richard Duda

Richard Duda — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 20:39:23 +0000

Oops! Another more serious loss, on top of the $300K and the connection between the Red and Blue (other than at Jackson) is that the Washington Red Line station was ADA accessible. There should at LEAST be an ACLU lawsuit burning a hole in some Public Interest lawyer’s pro bono case logs.

By: Richard Duda

Richard Duda — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 20:34:04 +0000

I moved to Chicago in August 2008, when the little dot for Washington (and Wellington, and Pualina…) was replaced by a little construction hat, as they did with the alternate Brown Line stations that were closed for being widened. Being new to Chicago and somewhat naive to the political machinations, I assumed that if the little construction hat meant “Closed for Construction” that really implied that it would RE-open someday.

HA! After one or two new maps were issued, as the writer says, any and all mention of Washington is now gone. No little construction helmet signifying construction under way, no new little dot with a wheelchair symbol, like at the now reopened Wellington, Paulina, and all the other Brown Line stations off the loop.

But it’s still THERE. (The station. Maybe not the pedway connection.)

Today, when going to Millennium Park and not remembering whether Lake or the next stop was best, I rode south past Lake, through the old Washington, and got off the Red Line train at Monroe. I was in the rear (North) car since I board at Granville, where the entrances are only on the far North end of the platform, and since I knew that the platforms are continuous, I just walked north, around the columns, onto the Washington platform. It’s DEFINITELY still there, and it looks fine, other than some plywood boxes covering what I guess are the stairways leading down to the pedway under the Red Line connecting to the Blue Line one block west. The signs are still up, on the walls and the ceiling, the escalators and stairways are there… they’re just closed off with wrought iron gates.

However, you can NOT walk NORTH from Washington to Lake, as I guess you could before the Daley Express Boondoggle construction (destruction?) was done. So, I had to turn around, walk all the way back south through Washington, and exit at Monroe, which was where I started. Oh well.