The Hamptons Subway Newsletter: June 2–8, 2023

Week of June 2–8, 2023
Riders this week: 6,210
Rider miles this week: 52,433

YOUR UNDERGROUND EYES AND EARS

Welcome to the Hamptons Subway Newsletter. This is Volume 1, Number 2. Last week was Number 1 and was written by Hilda Reynolds, but she left. So now, from here on, it is me, Jane Patterson, taking over. Hilda was an intern. I’m a docent, a step up. So, as she said, “We will come your way every week from now on so you can keep up with the goings-on down below.” We hope you enjoy it!

SEEN ON THE SUBWAY

Robert Downey Jr. was seen getting on the Hamptons Subway at the East Hampton platform and getting off it at Amagansett. Brooke Shields was seen getting off the Hamptons Subway at Southampton carrying two shopping bags from Citarella. Julie Ratner, founder/promoter of Ellen’s Run, was seen coming down an escalator in Montauk to the platform there.

DELAYS

There were 40-minute delays on the D line between Southampton and Water Mill on Monday afternoon as maintenance men removed a woman’s red handbag that somehow got onto the track. It contains identification, but it is our policy not to publicly state the person’s name for the sake of personal privacy. If you lost a red handbag, call 631-4SUBWAY ext. 343.

EMPLOYEE OF THE WEEK

Eleanor Freebin: A token clerk celebrating her first year at the Bridgehampton station.

NEW SUBWAY STOP AT QUOGUE OPENS

Last Monday, with great fanfare, the ribbon was cut to open the new Quogue stop on our western route. D and F trains will stop here, locals and expresses respectively. This fills a long gap in the subway system, which did not have an in-service stop from Hampton Bays to Westhampton. Jon Stewart, the TV personality who lived in Sag Harbor, came over to cut the ribbon, and made a funny remark about how he felt he had to get there in his car, rather than take the subway, because he thought the Quogue stop wouldn’t be open until he cut the ribbon. He was right about that.

HAMPTONS SUBWAY WINS STATE SAFETY AWARD

Last Thursday, in a ceremony in the Teddy Roosevelt Room at the State Capitol in Albany, Governor Kathy Hochul presented Commissioner Bill Aspinall with the 2023 Subway Public Safety Award: “This award honors Hamptons Subway for its two consecutive weeks of casualty-free service for the community it serves. It is a tribute to the work of Commissioner Bill Aspinall and his staff that the subway service, which operates day and night, has continued on without a single accident causing a fatality during this time.”

The award, consisting of a silver serving bowl and ladle, was received by the commissioner with the comment that this award was really not meant for him, but for the 230 employees of the Hamptons Subway whose dedication and care have made this possible. He said he would place the award not in the glass case at the Hamptons Subway headquarters, which is overflowing with awards, but in the glass awards case in the dining room of his home in East Hampton, where, at the end of his term, he would authorize this serving bowl be passed on to the next commissioner.

Another award, consisting of a small silver cigarette case, was handed out as a “second prize” for safety to the only other subway system in the state, the Metropolitan Transit Authority in New York City, which has only gone 17 months without a fatality.

BREAKING NEWS: GLADYS GOODING KILLED IN FREAK ACCIDENT

As we go to press, we have learned that Gladys Gooding of East Hampton and one other woman who has not yet been identified, have died after falling onto the tracks in front of an arriving westbound subway train at the Southampton station. Ms. Gooding, a famous but retired opera singer, had been doing voiceovers for the subway system, saying, “Watch out for the closing doors,” in recordings on all the cars. Further details next week.