Hamptons Subway Newsletter: Week of January 31–February 5, 2014
Week of January 31–February 5, 2014
Riders this past week: 5,402
Rider miles this past week: 71,909
DOWN IN THE TUBE
Chanel Iman of Victoria’s Secret was seen on Thursday traveling on the subway from East Hampton to Amagansett, apparently off to see her friend Ireland Baldwin at the Baldwin manse there. Karine Vanasse, who will join the regular cast of Revenge, the TV show about the Hamptons, was seen on the platform in North Sea. This was on Tuesday. Anderson Cooper, in full safari gear, was seen on the subway between Westhampton Beach and Quogue on Friday.
HANDCAR WORKOUT
Hampton Subway and Stronghampton Gym together announce a new form of exercise program for devotees of Hampton Subway. The Subway is closed every night from 2 a.m. to 6 a.m. for maintenance. On weekends during those hours, Stronghampton instructors will be on the Southampton subway platform to put gym goers on handcars. Bring a friend. The handcars require two people to make them go along the tracks at five miles an hour. One gym goer pushes down while the other pulls up on a bar, burning 100 calories every 20 minutes. Handcars can be rented by the hour to go either east or west on the system. Go to the gym’s website for costs per hour. All gym goers who take them out must bring them back before 5 a.m.
STEAM WHISTLE GOES LIVE
Beginning next Monday, all subway trains approaching stations or coming up behind other trains will be signaling their presence by sounding steam whistles. The whistles provide the wonderful moaning sound that people remember so fondly from the days of steam engines. A cord is pulled by the motorman in the front car, steam emits from the roof and that familiar sound is heard. What great memories it brings back. The idea for the steam whistle was brought up at a board meeting six months ago by Adam Aspinall, the father of our Subway Commissioner, who worked as an engineer on the Erie, Lackawanna, Santa Fe and Chattanooga before it was merged. Mr. Aspinall signed the proposal into law and here we are.
STRAPHANGER CAUTION
During the next two weeks, Hampton Subway will be experimenting with several new proposed subway train engines. The old engines were all installed 11 years ago and must all be replaced in the next 60 days. Riders might experience lurching or bucking or high speeds or even complete silence as they glide on their commutes. The engines, proposed by Ford, Samsung, Boeing, Apple, Rolls-Royce and General Electric, run on gasoline, diesel, corn oil, solar power, electric charge and peanut butter, respectively.
PINK IS THE NEW BLACK
Extras getting parts in the TV series Pink is the New Black, filming here, might find themselves on the Hampton Subway from time to time. In one episode on a subway car, a bum panhandles on a subway car for beach parking permits. In another, there is a scene in a subway car where a woman kicks a man in the shins. These cars are leased out to the producers for these occasions, but the cars still must be filled with “extras.”
GRATING STOLEN
A steel vent grating in a field in Shinneock used to vent fumes from subway trains traveling beneath has gone missing. Subway officials noticed it was gone Sunday when a pile of snow four feet high accumulated on the tracks below in one of our underground tunnels.