Hamptons Subway Newsletter: George Santos Rides the Rails

SEEN ON THE SUBWAY

Jean-Georges Vongerichten, the world-class Michelin-starred chef, was seen on the Amagansett platform last Friday evening at 8 p.m. purchasing a footlong at the Subway restaurant kiosk there. He looked left and right to make sure nobody was watching and then took a bite. After that, he rewrapped it, stuffed it in his bag and climbed aboard an eastbound train heading for Montauk.

IN BRIEF

Delays: The East Hampton to Three Mile Harbor Line will be shut down from 2 to 5 a.m. for routine track maintenance.

Advisory: The F Train Shuttle between Shinnecock and Sunrise Highway will be shut down until further notice beginning tonight at 8 p.m. See explanation below. Passengers are advised to take alternate means of transportation.

Employee of the Week: Gladys Thimblebottom, Dispatcher, Montauk Yard.

NEW SUBWAY LINE IS SHUT DOWN

Inspectors from the federal government announced last Tuesday the immediate shutdown of the subway shuttle connecting the Shinnecock Station with the new Sunrise Station near the Manna at Lobster Inn restaurant as a result of safety violations.

There is a serious and sudden 4-foot drop in the new tube halfway between the two stations that, so far, has not caused any injuries to passengers, but which does exceed safety parameters.

“Apparently, the new tube connecting the stations was built at both ends to meet in the middle,” an investigator explained. “But the tubes don’t match.”

Due to paperwork delays, the shutdown will begin on Friday evening at 6 p.m. The Shinnecock Shuttle will continue to run, ferrying passengers from the parking lot at Sunrise Highway to the Shinnecock Main Line Station until then.

“We have always known there was a bump,” Commissioner Bill Aspinall said. “But we thought it was within legal construction parameters. A lot of kids took the shuttle back and forth because of it and seemed to enjoy it immensely.”

The construction miscalculation occurred because of the hurry-up plan of construction. With the County Road 39 repairs and delays to begin this fall, it was important to get a new subway shuttle online by mid-June, and so two teams of construction men worked at opposite ends. That deadline was met, and the community has enjoyed this new transportation route, taking further pressure off the County Road 39 repairs for more than two weeks.

Visitors from the city park their cars in the vast lot across from the Lobster Inn and then take the shuttle to Shinnecock to make further connections.

“I feel nothing but pride that my brother Biff won the bid to build this shuttle connection,” Commissioner Aspinall said. “And he got the job done quickly. We regret further delays.”

It is estimated that the shuttle will have to be shut down for five months while repairs are made, at a cost of $14 million.

GEORGE SANTOS VISITS HAMPTONS SUBWAY

While Commissioner Aspinall was in Bay Shore this week confabbing with his brother Biff at the Subway Works Factory about the big bump, Vice Commissioner Alvin Clark met with George Santos, the U.S. congressman from New York’s 3rd district. Standing on the Westhampton Beach platform, Santos said he was there to discuss the particulars about the larger-than-life bronze statue of the founder of Hamptons Subway, Ivan Kratz, to be built on that platform.

Kratz, in 1923, had won the contract to build the Lexington Line in Manhattan. But after most of the building material he’d bought disappeared one night, “he needed further funding to replace it, which was granted. It turned out he’d quietly had it trucked out to Montauk where, hidden underground, he then secretly built the Hamptons Subway system here.

But then, in another subway building material theft, he got caught red-handed, was convicted and wound up in prison, where he died. It was only in 2007 that the never-opened Hamptons Subway system was found by accident intact. And within six months it was up and running.

“Is the statue to be just of Kratz?” Santos asked.

“It was originally supposed to be Kratz and his wife Brenda. But we now know Brenda divorced him.”

“Without Brenda,” Santos said, “that second statue should be of me. My grandfather Fritz Santos was Kratz’s closest advisor, and it was he who thought up the idea of hiding everything in Montauk. Since I’m Fritz’s only grandson, it would be logical for the statue to be of Kratz and me with our arms around one another.”

“I think it would, too,” Vice Commissioner Clark said.

We here at the newsletter agree. What a great idea!

COMMISSIONER ASPINALL’S MESSAGE

It is a big undertaking, building a new underground subway tunnel 6 miles long. As you know, the Long Island Rail Road has added three morning commuter trains to Montauk, and the Hampton Jitney has added a last chance bus. We felt, as the third prong of public transit in the Hamptons, that we should do our part. Now it turns out our new tunnel to Shinnecock is to be delayed. And so now we have to endure this shutdown, and we are very sorry. We tried. Sometimes things don’t work out. But you learn something.

And so, I am pleased to announce that during the bump repairs, we will convert the big parking lot serving the new Shinnecock station to a vast roller-skating rink, the largest on Long Island, or anywhere in the world for that matter. Then in December, we will freeze it over and turn it into a combination ice-skating rink and hockey rink.

The ice-skating rink, which will be closest to the eastbound Sunrise parking turnoff entrance, will be named Biff Rink. And the hockey rink, including small wooden bleachers for spectators, will be known as the Aspinall Sunrise Rink. We also thought we might put in a 20-foot-high skateboard ramp, but my committee voted that down in a very close contest, 3 to 2. It was felt by the majority that there might be insurance problems.

The rinks will close when the Sunrise Station reopens in early June, when, according to Biff Aspinall, the construction repairs will be completed.