The Hamptons Subway: Taylor Plimpton, Paul McCartney and Ken Lipper
DOWN IN THE TUBE
Taylor Plimpton was seen riding the subway between the Georgica and Wainscott stops. He said he just wanted to see what the subway was all about. Paul McCartney was seen on the subway heading from Amagansett to East Hampton, carrying a copy of the first Beatles album from 1963. Wall Street’s Ken Lipper was seen on the Southampton platform token booth having his swipe card reloaded.
Week of July 13–19, 2013
Riders this past week: 13,882
Rider miles this past week: 103,333
THE CYCLONE
The Hampton Jitney has its fast Bonacker train that goes from Manhattan to East Hampton without stopping on Friday afternoons. The Long Island Railroad has the famous Cannonball that does pretty much the same thing.
Everybody please welcome (round of applause)…the Hampton Subway Cyclone. The Cylone goes around and around the circuit of all the subway stops in the Hamptons without stopping anywhere along the way. It’s like the Jitney and the LIRR. But it’s not like those two. It’s completely unique. As everybody is already here in the Hamptons, there is no need for the Cyclone to stop. It starts at our Westhampton Beach station, everybody is told to hang on tight, and then it takes off to the east along our express track, passing station after station, making a U-turn when it gets to Montauk, and then still without stopping come all the way back to finally stop again in Westhampton Beach to let everybody off.
There is the great roller coaster ride out at Coney Island that sort of does the same thing as this. You get on at a starting point, go up and down and around on this terrifying ride, and get off where you started. It’s called the Cyclone, and we’ve named our high-speed train the Cyclone, too. Bon voyage.
REFURBISHING THE CARS
The editors of the Hampton Subway Newsletter hereby go on record to say that practically all the subway cars in the system need to be junked. We need new ones. No new one has been purchased in 15 years. And so once again, after the heavy work over the Fourth of July weekend, most of the cars have suffered wear and tear with interior seats getting wobbly, overhead straps coming loose, axles getting bent, shock absorbers crushed, light bulbs burning out, springs and inter-car couplers beginning to rattle. One by one, as happened last year, the cars are being removed from service for much-needed overhauls and renovations out at the Montauk yards. There are 38 cars on the system overall. Riders won’t notice the difference, but every eight hours another car gets uncoupled out at Montauk and goes into the sprucing-up barn while one just finished getting spruced takes its place. Overall, during the next 13 days, all the cars will be getting a going over, but make no mistake. Duct tape, chewing gum, rubber bands and bungee cords can only keep these cars going for so long. It’s time for a capital purchase of all new cars and, frankly, we hope soon.
THE HAMPTON SUBWAY TRIPLE MARATHON
“The Subway Run for Charity” will take place early next Monday morning at 2 a.m., when the subway closes for the night, with a shotgun start—runners will leave all at the same time from each of the 17 stations—to run counter-clockwise the 64 miles around the subway circuit for charity. Last year, nearly 2,000 runners ran the triple marathon. See you there.
COMMISSIONER ASPINALL’S MESSAGE
After the rough Fourth of July weekend, my wife and I are enjoying a nice week’s vacation in Las Vegas. Wish us luck.