Riders Low
Week of September 9-15, 2011
Riders this week: 3,212
Rider miles this week: 22,712
RIDERS LOW
This is the lowest number of riders we’ve had on the Subway system in years. The reason, of course, was the hurricane and the fact that the subway is underground. Yes, we closed the subway on Saturday the day before the hurricane came Sunday morning. And yes we had to clean up and air out and couldn’t reopen until Wednesday. But that is no reason for people not come on Thursday. And Friday, as I am sure you know, President Obama was here to tour the subway system with Vice President Biden and Commissioner Aspinall so the subway was closed for that. (see article further on.) We put signs up on all the entrances STRAPHANGERS WELCOME on Saturday morning. Nobody really caught on again though until Sunday. It was a lousy week. [expand]
DOWN IN THE TUBE
Nobody famous rode the subway this past week, the cowards.
SUBWAY WAS CLOSED FRIDAY FOR PRESIDENT OBAMA. DID YOU SEE HIM?
President Obama, here on the east coast to tour our hurricane damage, walked the tunnels of Hampton Subway all day on Friday with Subway Commissioner Aspinall, Vice President Biden and Secretary of State Clinton not only to confirm there was no damage, but also to look at all the great works of art on the tunnel walls which were revealed when the hurricane surge washed all the walls clean, when it came thorough. They were most impressed. Photo opportunities for the general public—who were not allowed down there—were at the tops of the escalators in Westhampton Beach at 10 a.m., Southampton at 1 p.m., East Hampton at 4 p.m. and out at the Montauk Yards at 7 p.m. The group and its entourage then went to a buffet dinner at the Montauk Playhouse Community Center with East Hampton Town Supervisor Wilkinson.
REPUBLICANS VISIT SUBWAY
All the Republican candidates for President will be taking the Hampton Subway from Westhampton to Montauk beginning at 7 a.m. next Tuesday in retaliation for the subway hosting Barack Obama last Friday. We had hoped to be able to allow the candidates to mingle with the general public during this trip, but as it turns out there are so many candidates we had to use the entire six car subway train—the maximum, since longer than that won’t fit in the stations—which will include standing room, and so no general public will be allowed on that 7 a.m. train. The next train at 7:15 a.m. will be okay again.
Incidentally, Sarah Palin, who has not yet announced, said she would come but only if she could have her own special car on the next train after the big candidates train and would get on at the Hampton Bays stop and go the rest of the way to Montauk in it because Todd was clamming in the morning off their Hampton Bays home back porch and she couldn’t get over to Westhampton at 7 a.m. The other candidates considered the matter for 11 days and then voted along party lines, 37-0, not to allow her to do this.
But if Sarah is at the Hampton Bays Station at 7:20 a.m. next Tuesday, she will be able to watch all the other candidates whizz by.
FREE WI-FI BACK UP
The Wi-Fi service on the subway has been fixed. It had gotten very weak and then vanished last week, so we turned it off and rested it up for a few days then turned it back on and it is okay. Sort of.
COMMISSIONER ASPINALL’S MESSAGE
I was delighted to walk through the subway tunnels with Barack and Hillary and Joe last Friday. The crowds of adoring people at the top of the escalators at street level were so happy to see me and the others, I have never felt so wanted in my life. Usually, they are just complaining about one thing or another.
“Mr. Aspinall is a really great guy,” a woman at the Water Mill stop said to Barack.