The Hamptons Subway: Week of August 9–15, 2013
Riders this past week: 12,912
Rider miles this past week: 119,964
DOWN IN THE TUBE
Lady Gaga was seen on the subway traveling between Southampton and Water Mill last Tuesday afternoon. Many straphangers were staring at her with their mouths open.
DELAY DUE TO SNAKES
Just before dawn on Thursday morning out at the Montauk yards, moments before the first train went out, a maintenance man came upon a rattlesnake in one of the cars. He could hear its rattle. Others assisted him and they distracted it, then dropped a garbage can over it, slid a piece of cardboard in under it, and captured it. Later that morning, around 11 a.m., a passenger came upon a python in a subway car traveling westbound between Quogue and Quiogue. After some commotion, it too was overwhelmed and captured. Both snakes have been turned over to the Snake Humane Society in Riverhead to be re-released into the wild in Arizona. We are sorry for the 30-minute delay throughout the system when all that happened.
SNAKES ON A SUBWAY
Next Friday at 9 p.m., Commissioner Aspinall is pleased to announce that a movie short, made by his daughter Wendy for a class project in the East Manhattan Film School she is attending, will be shown on a screen set up in the company cafeteria at the Hampton Subway Headquarters building in Hampton Bays. It is 25 minutes long, everyone is welcome to attend, and we are certain it will be quite something. It is called Snakes on a Subway and was filmed on our very own Hampton Subway late last Wednesday, just before the system shut down at 2 a.m. Good for you, girl, staying up until that late hour!
SUBWAY TRANSFERS WORTH A LOT
Week of August 9–15, 2013
Riders this past week: 12,912
Rider miles this past week: 119,964
DOWN IN THE TUBE
Lady Gaga was seen on the subway traveling between Southampton and Water Mill last Tuesday afternoon. Many straphangers were staring at her with their mouths open.
DELAY DUE TO SNAKES
Just before dawn on Thursday morning out at the Montauk yards, moments before the first train went out, a maintenance man came upon a rattlesnake in one of the cars. He could hear its rattle. Others assisted him and they distracted it, then dropped a garbage can over it, slid a piece of cardboard in under it, and captured it. Later that morning, around 11 a.m., a passenger came upon a python in a subway car traveling westbound between Quogue and Quiogue. After some commotion, it too was overwhelmed and captured. Both snakes have been turned over to the Snake Humane Society in Riverhead to be re-released into the wild in Arizona. We are sorry for the 30-minute delay throughout the system when all that happened.
SNAKES ON A SUBWAY
Next Friday at 9 p.m., Commissioner Aspinall is pleased to announce that a movie short, made by his daughter Wendy for a class project in the East Manhattan Film School she is attending, will be shown on a screen set up in the company cafeteria at the Hampton Subway Headquarters building in Hampton Bays. It is 25 minutes long, everyone is welcome to attend, and we are certain it will be quite something. It is called Snakes on a Subway and was filmed on our very own Hampton Subway late last Wednesday, just before the system shut down at 2 a.m. Good for you, girl, staying up until that late hour!
SUBWAY TRANSFERS WORTH A LOT
Many collectors still buy and sell old subway transfer tickets, printed up but never used back in 1932 and 1933 when the subway system was built, was about to be put into service but then was not (back then.)
The original idea for them was that a subway token, bought at a token booth outside the turnstiles, would be good for a ride from just one stop to another, but once on, these subway transfer tickets could be bought from the subway conductors while traveling to the destination. (The tokens cost two cents in 1932, the transfers one cent. That was a lot of money in those days). Having the transfer thus meant when you took your return trip or continued on your trip, it would be a bargain.
One hundred thousand transfer tickets were printed in 1932 in anticipation of the opening. When the subway did not open because of the arrest of the builder of the system, most of these unused transfer tickets were taken to the dump. But a few hundred remained, left in a desk drawer.
The transfer tickets have no value today. Since there is only one route for the Hampton Subway, there is nothing to transfer to, and, anyway, the original idea for them was just a way to sucker in people and then charge them more. No subway system today charges extra for a second ride if you embark upon it without leaving the system.
Nevertheless, framed subway transfer tickets in “new” condition sell for as much as $3,500 at the New York auction houses, and in a batch of ten, sold off at an online auction last week, brought $31,812.10 from an unidentified
buyer.
COMMISSIONER ASPINALL’S MESSAGE
The commissioner and his wife are off studying the subway system in Mexico City this week. They are guests of the President of Mexico. How about that?
Many collectors still buy and sell old subway transfer tickets, printed up but never used back in 1932 and 1933 when the subway system was built, was about to be put into service but then was not (back then.)
The original idea for them was that a subway token, bought at a token booth outside the turnstiles, would be good for a ride from just one stop to another, but once on, these subway transfer tickets could be bought from the subway conductors while traveling to the destination. (The tokens cost two cents in 1932, the transfers one cent. That was a lot of money in those days). Having the transfer thus meant when you took your return trip or continued on your trip, it would be a bargain.
One hundred thousand transfer tickets were printed in 1932 in anticipation of the opening. When the subway did not open because of the arrest of the builder of the system, most of these unused transfer tickets were taken to the dump. But a few hundred remained, left in a desk drawer.
The transfer tickets have no value today. Since there is only one route for the Hampton Subway, there is nothing to transfer to, and, anyway, the original idea for them was just a way to sucker in people and then charge them more. No subway system today charges extra for a second ride if you embark upon it without leaving the system.
Nevertheless, framed subway transfer tickets in “new” condition sell for as much as $3,500 at the New York auction houses, and in a batch of ten, sold off at an online auction last week, brought $31,812.10 from an unidentified
buyer.
COMMISSIONER ASPINALL’S MESSAGE
The commissioner and his wife are off studying the subway system in Mexico City this week. They are guests of the President of Mexico. How about that?