Hamptons Subway Newsletter: Week of March 12–18, 2015

Week of March 12–18, 2015
Riders this past week: 8,777
Rider miles this past week: 97,777

DOWN IN THE TUBE
Julianne Moore was seen riding the Hamptons Subway eastbound from Amagansett and Montauk last Friday. She was carrying a trophy of some sort. Suzanne Vega was seen riding the subway westbound from Bridgehampton to Water Mill on Saturday morning. She was carrying her guitar. Paul McCartney was seen standing on the East Hampton platform, hands in his pockets, whistling a tune and rocking back and forth as the trains went by.

ALMOST DELAY FREE
The week ending last Sunday almost became the first week since November that we did not have a delay on the system. But that day, at 6 a.m., the worst delay imaginable happened, and it continued all day, not ending until we closed for maintenance at 2 a.m. the next morning. Train service is supposed to begin at 6 a.m. after the long night of maintenance. But at 6 a.m., no trains appeared. Out in Montauk, where train maintenance is done, the maintenance people still thought it was 5 a.m. Nobody there realized the clocks had jumped forward an hour for the time change. Although crowds of hopeful travelers appeared on the platforms and word went out to Montauk to start up the train service, Montauk was not able to do that—there were still maintenance people on the tracks who thought it was 5 a.m.

The service finally restarted an hour later than normal, and people were pretty upset about it because the trains ran an hour late. The 7 a.m. was out at 8 a.m. The 7:06 a.m. was out at 8:06 a.m. and so forth and so on.

It is very rare that we have a mix-up such as this. And so, for the rest of the day, until the system shut down again at 2 a.m.—which by the subway clock was still 1 a.m.—the delay continued. At that time, the crew still thought there was an hour to go, but there wasn’t. At that point, Commissioner Aspinall ordered the Montauk crew and all motormen responsible for this docked an hour’s pay. As for the customer base, those who knew what happened were in an outrage all day, but those who didn’t know thought everything fine because trains still came at the regular six-minute intervals. We regret the error.

NY SUBWAY OFFICIAL HERE
We were pleased to see the Assistant New York City Subway Commissioner Aaron Bell out riding our subway last Friday. He was here to see if he could learn anything new from the way we run Hamptons Subway. At the end of the day he thanked us very much, said he hadn’t learned anything and he left. After he left, our Commissioner Bill Aspinall said he intends to send one of our assistant commissioners to the New York Subway system and come home saying he didn’t learn anything. 

TWO FOR ONE DAY
Our new marketing director Kate Collins has instigated “two for one” day. Every Thursday until April 30, riders can get two people through the turnstiles for the cost of one swipe. Riders and those they get in for free are asked to wear red when they come through, to distinguish themselves from the turnstile jumpers, who we arrest when they do that.

COMMISSIONER ASPINALL’S MESSAGE
It was very rude of Mr. Bell from New York Transit to come out here and ride our subway for free and then say he didn’t learn anything. If he comes again, we will require that he use a token for his subway travel.

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