Hamptons Subway Newsletter: Week of February 6–12, 2015

Week of February 6–12, 2015
Riders this past week: 7,814
Rider miles this past week: 62,913

DOWN IN THE TUBE
Billy Joel, humming a tune, was seen traveling on the Hamptons Subway between Bridgehampton and Sag Harbor last Tuesday. His next Madison Square Concert is February 18. Brian Williams was on the subway heading from Water Mill to Southampton on Friday. Real estate super agent Gary DePersia was riding the Hamptons Subway on Saturday between North Haven and Sag Harbor. Madonna has not been seen much out here since November.

LOW RIDERSHIP
Because of the snowstorms last week, the number of people riding the Hamptons Subway was less than usual, particularly on the Tuesday when people weren’t allowed out of their homes because of the weather. We sent our usual interns out to try to talk to people walking on Main Street in Southampton, Sag Harbor and East Hampton into using the subway but it was to no avail.

SUPER BOWL SUNDAY
Hamptons Subway went to a lot of trouble to arrange for TV screens to be temporarily placed at each end of every car in the system on Super Bowl Sunday. But instead of most people getting on the train and then hopping off at their usual destinations, people got on and stayed on, resulting in huge crowds of people jammed into all the cars while new passengers who paid the fare had to just mill around on the platforms hoping people would get off, which they didn’t. That the TV feed failed when a train hit a bump at the curve at Trout Pond just before the final minute of the game only exacerbated the situation. We regret we ever thought to do this. Stupid.

EEL REPORTED
A giant eel was reported in the tunnel between Water Mill and Southampton at 4 p.m. on Friday, but it wriggled off before anyone could tell if this was the Great Ecuadorian Eel we are all familiar with.

TROUBLE
Several people in the unincorporated hamlet of Wainscott are considering incorporation and have all stated that if Wainscott incorporates and if either is elected mayor, they will refuse to allow Hamptons Subway to make its stop in that community. They say the subway is too noisy and it makes the ground shake when a train comes through. We say Hamptons Subway was put in place in 1931 and there was no zoning then and no permits needed and so it is grandfathered in. We consider not stopping at Wainscott to be fighting words. We’ll stop anyway. It’ll be the Wainscott Police vs. the Hamptons Subway Police.

J TRAIN ALERT
The J Train will be run only as an express between Hampton Bays and Westhampton Beach next Monday night between 10 p.m. and midnight for track maintenance. It will be open briefly from midnight to 2 a.m. to see if the repairs were completed correctly, but then it will shut down for the rest of the night with all the rest of the cars for its regular nightly maintenance.

COMMISSIONER ASPINALL’S MESSAGE
We note with some despair that the New York City Subway System is increasing its fare from $2.50 a ride to $2.75 a ride without comments from the customers. This may be how they do things in New York. Here in the Hamptons we hold hearings where the public can attend and have their say, we put it to a vote of the whole board of directors and then after we pass it we give two weeks notice to the general public, not one.

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