The Hamptons Subway: Week of August 18-24, 2012
Riders this past week: 17,411
Rider miles this past week: 179,314
DOWN IN THE TUBE
Venus Williams was seen on the subway heading from Sag Harbor to Noyac. She was wearing really neat tennis wear. Someone said she was on her way to a party to launch her new clothing line.
DELAY WEDNESDAY
There was a long wait on Wednesday afternoon in Southampton when one of our subway trains failed to back up. The motorman, Ennis Ennison, who has been with us a long time and should have known better, tried to back up the train a short distance because he thought he had overshot the station. What he forgot is that four years ago, he had purposely detached the reverse gear on this particular train—we like for our motormen to have the same trains every day—so he could not back up. He had done that because the day before four years ago he had backed into a train behind him and said that would never, ever happen again. So now, when he needed it, having forgotten that, he jammed it into reverse and stripped all the gears that make the train go both forward and backwards and so could not move. It took nearly two hours to get it all sorted out. Ennison is in the hospital, highly medicated to numb the effects of what is diagnosed as severe anguish with complications caused by a hairline fracture in his gear shifting arm.
SAILOR AWARDS
Shelter Island sailor Amanda Clark, who made the United States Olympic Team for two-person sailing, reached the finals in the Olympic competition in London but could not beat the New Zealanders. We will honor her with a trophy as the best sailor in the Hamptons. It is not well known but Clark did much of her training in the weight room at our Hampton Bays headquarters. Just pulled those sheets and ropes a little too hard, we guess.
SWIPE CARDS COMING SOON
As many of you know, our order of the new batch of Hampton Subway swipe cards was sent to the wrong subway system—it wound up in Dallas and later, Montreal—and so we ran out last Thursday, resulting in some inconveniences here and there which we deeply regret. The order, re-routed, should be here by Monday. Until then, if your old swipe card is down to zero, just tell the token clerk, pay her the $2 and she’ll let you hop over the turnstile during these next few days.
GEORGICA STATION CLOSED
As you may know, a new station was put in last spring at Georgica at the request of those living there. No one used it, however, it was just there and in fact those who requested it now posted guards so only people living in Georgica could use it but since none of them did, Commissioner Aspinall has now closed the ticket booth and the platform for “repairs.” It was considered by the ticket booth ladies to be the most lonely assignment.
THE HORSE WALK
As happens every summer in mid-August, the horses competing in the Hampton Classic Horse Show over Labor Day weekend are let off at our Westhampton Beach stop in the middle of the night and then trotted down the tracks while the subway system closes for maintenance for the night to the Bridgehampton station and the horse show grounds. The first few horses, from Kentucky, came through last Thursday night, much to the surprise of the maintenance crews, a week early. They are in a different time zone down there apparently. Anyway, the trot along went well and they did pick up after themselves.
COMMISSIONER ASPINALL’S MESSAGE
The annual report of the Subway System is out next week. As usual, however, it is only going to be presented to investors since the Hampton Subway is privately owned and nobody else is allowed to know what is going on.