Week of December 9-16, 2011
Riders this week: 8,412
Rider miles this week: 90,814
DOWN IN THE TUBE
Gwyneth Paltrow was reportedly seen on the subway headed for Southampton from Water Mill on Wednesday. We have no reports from East Hampton or Montauk this week because our train spotter, who like the six others we employ rides the rails all day long looking to spot celebrities, was out sick with bronchitis.
APOLOGIES FOR
SUBWAY DELAYS THURSDAY
The two-hour delay at our Hampton Bays stop last Thursday during the morning rush was caused by Christmas decorations attached to the lead car of train 6 not being glued on properly. The wreaths and Xmas lights were attached to the lead car of train 6 in our Montauk yards at 7 a.m. by our service crew that morning, and fared just fine until the train hit a bump just as it was coming into the Hampton Bays station, an occurrence that caused practically all the decorations on the lead car to come loose and fall to the tracks sending the lead car and the one behind it off the rails to slide to a halt. A clean-up crew was dispatched to attend to the Christmas decoration mess so following cars would not get derailed by other decorations caught in their undersides. The train was backed back onto the rails and inspectors were sent to look at where riders and the motorman said the bump occurred, but they found nothing. It is theorized a raccoon or something with a strong constitution got hit but then was able to hobble off after the accident into one of the underground hallways. P.E.T.A. has been notified, as per procedures.
ROCK BAND PROBLEMS
Last Monday afternoon, subway riders reported hearing music emanating from the subway tunnels between Amagansett and East Hampton and between Bridgehampton and Sag Harbor. When these reports continued on Tuesday morning, a crew was sent down there to investigate. What they found was two rock bands rehearsing in two different warehouse rooms adjacent to the tunnels, one performing heavy metal music and the other hip hop. (It is not clear which was which.) Flashing strobe lights and smoke machines were in evidence. The police were called and a total of nine musicians were arrested and taken respectively to the East Hampton and Southampton lockups. The rock concert paraphernalia was also seized.
These warehouse rooms were built in 1932, at the time the subway system was created , and are both unheated and windowless and not healthy for even rock bands, however musicians managed to lug their instruments out to them. Apparently they must have walked down the tracks to these places during the time the subway system is closed in the middle of the night. This is a very unsafe business. More musical sounds were heard by patrons between Quogue and Quiogue on Saturday morning.
COMMISSIONER ASPINALL’S MESSAGE
I am pleased to report that this morning, Madonna, the famous singer and actress who has a house in Bridgehampton, contacted me to see if it would be possible for her to make a music video in one of the underground warehouses that sit alongside the subway tunnels. Apparently she had learned of the local rock bands performing in them. She has in mind a particular one between Amagansett and Napeague where last week 17 antique subway cars, all built in the 1920s according to the name plates on them, were discovered stored on rails. Certainly it would make a great backdrop for what she has in mind. We are very excited about this prospect and I hope, after presenting this request to my board of directors, to respond to her with an enthusiastic “yes.” What a feather in our cap.