The first station in Washington was opened on 16 April 1835 as an intermediate stop on the Stanhope & Tyne Railway passenger service between Durham Turpike and South Shields.

On 19 June 1844, southbound services along the DJR were diverted to Gilesgate and Ferryhill along the newly constructed Newcastle & Darlington Junction Railway and on 1 October 1850, the York, Newcastle & Berwick Railway diverted Gateshead services along a new, more direct route to Pelaw, thus allowing the line to bypass Brockley Whins.

When the YN&BR diverted services onto the direct line to Pelaw, they began to use a new station in Washington, 600yd to north east of the original[1] and only the market day services to Durham Turnpike continued to use the first station until they were withdrawn in December 1853.

However the opening of Chester-le-Street station on the Team Valley Line led to it being permanently withdrawn in January 1869.

The Beeching Report recommended closing the station to passenger traffic, which occurred on 9 September 1963 (making it the first post-Beeching closure in the country).