Week of November 30 – December 5, 2012
Riders this past week: 11,812
Rider miles this past week: 91,819
DOWN IN THE TUBE
Santa Claus was seen talking to two elves on the subway between Montauk and Napeague last Wednesday afternoon. Why isn’t he up at the North Pole supervising the making of all the toys? Was he just checking the lists of all good boys and girls and checking them twice? We hope so, ho, ho, ho. Seen heading from East Hampton to Sag Harbor was Lorne Michaels of Saturday Night Live. Author Tom Wolfe, in his all-white suit, was on the subway from Southampton heading toward Shinnecock.
LAWSUITS
A lawsuit was filed by a Sagaponack man on Wednesday alleging he was in one of the older subway cars hanging onto one of the leather ceiling straps when, going around a turn, it broke. He didn’t fall down, but is suing for pain and suffering in his arm and head respectively. It came as a surprise to him, he said in the lawsuit. He has also filed a second suit, a class action suit, saying the replacement of the old leather straps with the new metal ones is not going quickly enough. We remind this person that last year on one of the newer cars, a tall man sued the subway system for hitting his head on one of the metal straps, but it was thrown out by a judge, who said that when you are 6’ 10” and not careful, you should expect things like that to happen from time to time.
TURKEYS
There are still a few turkeys running around on the subway platforms every day. All these turkeys are the leftovers from the Turkey Stampede, an event Hampton Subway held at 2 a.m. two Wednesdays ago for what its promoters had hoped would be a nice crowd of people attending, though at that hour only a few came. The 10,000 turkeys were herded through the tunnels from Westhampton to Montauk anyway. If you see any stragglers, tell a subway employee about it ASAP. Since the turkeys are live and unrefrigerated, they could spoil after a few more days.
SYSTEM CHANGES
The K Train from Noyac to Amagansett will be out of service between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. this Friday to accommodate needed track repairs. Riders should to take the L train from Noyac to Bridgehampton and then take the B local from Bridgehampton to Amagansett between these times.
COUNT THE CARS CONTEST BEGINS
The metal can with the letterbox slot on the front is in place atop Fort Hill in Montauk overlooking the Montauk Subway Yards. This is the time for the annual “Count the Cars Competition.”
From now til December 15, parents should take their children between the ages of 4 and 12 to the top of the hill and have their kids look down at the subway cars and guess the total number of subway cars in the system. Write down that number on a piece of paper and put the paper in the slot.
The kid who guesses the exact number of subway cars in the system will be riding with Santa Claus in the motorman’s booth of the first Hampton Subway car of the day on Christmas Day for two complete loops of the system.
COMMISSIONER ASPINALL’S MESSAGE
Our oldest employee, assistant bookkeeper Ezekiel Barnes, who it is said is 106 years old, will be feted in the company cafeteria with a slice of birthday cake this Friday at 3 p.m.
It may or not be his birthday, because old Zeke won’t say, but we celebrate it on this day anyway every year.
Everybody come.