Hamptons Subway Newsletter: Week of March 19–25, 2015

Week of March 19–25, 2015
Riders this past week: 8,613
Rider miles this past week: 98,313

DOWN IN THE TUBE
Subway Commissioner Aspinall and his wife rode the Hamptons Subway from our downtown Southampton stop to the East Hampton Main Street stop Friday to do a little pre-summer shopping. Staff and crew waved and cheered them on their way. It’s unusual for the Commissioner to ride the subway. He and his wife usually prefer the limo and driver that his contract with the company provides.

EXPLOSION
Passengers on the Hamptons Bays platform heard a loud bang coming from the tunnel connecting that town to East Quogue and told staff about it. A puff of smoke soon emerged from the tunnel there. But a preliminary investigation turned up nothing. Just a case of nerves is what we think because, apparently, nothing happened.

BABY BORN
A 7-pound, 3-ounce baby boy was born in the middle car on the subway heading eastbound during the long stretch between the Amagansett stop and the Hither Hills in Montauk stop on Monday morning, March 16. Subway personnel learned that a birth was imminent when the train left the East Hampton Station and our trained birthing team met the train at the Amagansett station and climbed aboard in time to do the deed. Our birthing team is a group of highly trained subway volunteers, who take classes in the medical clinic in our Hampton Bays headquarters after-hours for helping pregnant women, who are paid to work part-time here giving birth. There are, in an average year, just over 4.2 births on Hamptons Subway. Bouquets of flowers are always given out to new mothers, both on the subway and at our headquarters medical training center. For privacy’s sake, passengers are herded into adjacent cars front and back while the deed is being done. And shades are drawn. And afterward, everyone is asked to join in singing “Happy Birthday.”

BEACH BOYS MUSIC
Passengers have complained that when the train passes along the tunnel going westbound out of Main Street East Hampton, music by the Beach Boys—“Surfer Girl,” “Be True to Your School,” “The Little Old Lady from Pasadena” and “Surfin’ Safari” can be heard for a while, wafting through the cars. We know the reason. Our maintenance crew is readying the subway spur connecting Main Street to Main Beach for the season. The music will end next week, and after that it will be heard for a week going past the Coopers Beach spur in Southampton as they sweep the sand and seagull droppings out of that.

GEORGICA STOP
The Georgica subway stop between East Hampton and Wainscott will resume regular service for the season on March 25. Over the winter, riders get the subway to stop there by tapping the Hamptons Subway app on their cell phones. You will be on your own at the Georgica stop until Memorial Day, though, because the butler and champagne service there will not resume until then.

COMMISSIONER ASPINALL’S MESSAGE
All passengers are reminded to be courteous to others when on the Hamptons Subway. A fight did nevertheless break out between two men after a subway train left the Water Mill Station last Wednesday at 9 p.m. When it ended, though, Hamptons Subway personnel issued both participants yellow warning cards and required that they shake hands, which they did. Both said they were sorry.

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