Hamptons Subway Newsletter: Week of October 12 – October 18, 2012
Riders this past week: 18,381
Rider miles this past week: 101,656
DOWN IN THE TUBE
Many famous movie stars were seen flitting this way and that on the subway system, reading scripts, talking to one another about the Hamptons International Film Festival. They were too numerous to name.
RECORD NUMBER OF RIDERS
The total number of rider miles last week exceeded 100,000 in October for the first time. It was undoubtedly due to the crowds attending the film festival. But it might have just been tourists who wanted to see what the Hampton Subway was like.
TRACKAGE FESTIVAL
The management of Hampton Subway will start a new tradition this fall by bringing several 100-foot-long pieces of railroad track out on flatbed trucks down the Main Streets of our villages. These pieces are for the straightaways, which this year are being replaced between several of our stations. (Tracks are replaced every 10 years, piecemeal). In the past, the tracks have been trucked out under builders tarps. This year, we invite everyone to come out and watch the shiny new tracks come parading through. The truck drivers will be preceded by subway employees in full uniform, the Bay Shore Bagpipe Squadron and the Suffolk County Baton Throwing Champion. Watch for dates in future editions of this newsletter.
SUBWAY SURFING
Young people should be advised, that subway surfing—which is defined as pressing yourself against the sliding doors on the outside after they close and pushing yourself up and to the sides of the door moldings to brace yourself with your hands and staying like that until the next station—is entirely stupid and should not be done even if someone double dares you. There is no law against the practice, but there should be one.
WHEEL NOISE LAWSUIT
A group of subway riders have filed a $2 million lawsuit against the Hampton Subway objecting to the screeching noise the subway makes as it rounds the bend under Trout Pond in Noyac. Please be advised that new trackage is supposed to be in place next year, but because of the lawsuit we are diverting some of the arriving tracks in the next few weeks to Noyac to see if we can get them to fit there. The location from which these tracks are being taken is top secret.
THAT SUBWAY CAR
The 90-year-old Lexington Avenue D subway car found completely intact in a storage room along the tunnel that connects East Hampton and Amagansett will not be restored and used as a museum piece in that storage room. Sorry to disappoint. Mayor Bloomberg has called Hampton Subway Commissioner Aspinall and wants it shipped back to the MTA as soon as possible. Ownership trumps “finders keepers,” it seems.
NEW JOB OPENING
During the last five years of Commissioner Aspinall’s reign, there have been 11 marketing directors for Hampton Subway hired and fired. Because of this high turnover, Hampton Subway is creating a new position, Assistant Marketing Director, which will report directly to the Commissioner to provide continuity about what’s going on with this or that Marketing Director.
COMMISSIONER ASPINALL’S MESSAGE
It certainly is a blow to Hampton Subway that Mayor Bloomberg wants back the 90-year-old subway car we found on our system. On the other hand, we believe the Trackage Parade, proposed by our new marketing director Todd Aarondunk, will be a big hit. So it’s one old traditional item gone and one new tradition coming in.