Dan's Papers - October 26, 2007 - Hampton Subway Joins Effort to Ease Country Road 39 Traffic

Carl Aspinall, the Manager of the Hampton Subway System (HSS), is pleased to announce the imminent opening of a new subway stop at the eastern terminus of the Sunrise Highway at the Lobster Inn.

"Hampton Subway has been in the forefront of transportation on the South Fork, helping to get people to where they need to go in the Hamptons since its beginnings," he said. "And so it should come as no surprise that Hampton Subway will do its part to help ease traffic during the reconstruction of County Road 39 by adding an eighth stop just a short walk from the Lobster Inn. Motorists can leave their cars there in the big lot we are building. And then they can take the subway."

The building of the twenty second and underground track tunnel leading to it has been going on since it was announced one year ago that major work would be done on County Road 39 to add a lane, starting in the fall of 2007 and ending in the spring of 2008.

"This gave us a year to do this," he said. "We have broken through to the new station - which we have secretly been working on during this time as well - and we're almost ready to go. We are currently installing the escalators and should have that done by the end of the week. After that, all that is left to do is break through to ground level and the parking lot."

Aspinall said he was amused by the fact that a huge 200-acre parking lot capable of holding 9,000 cars had been built in a former potato field on the south side of Sunrise Highway across from the Lobster Inn and nobody seemed to know why it was there.

"Surprise!" he laughed.

Motorists heading eastbound will be able to exit Sunrise at the parking lot, go down into the station and go from there. Aspinall acknowledged that the station was not in a direct line with all the other stations.

"County Road 39 had not been built when the Hampton Subway was built in 1932," he said. "And so we have a Shinnecock stop down on Hill Street by the Indian Reservation, which does us no good to help County Road 39. Our new 'Sunrise Station' will therefore be a feeder station. People will take the subway - it will be a shuttle, just like the Times Square Shuttle in New York - south to the old Shinnecock Station to transfer without charge to the main line going from Westhampton to Montauk. The transfer is free. And so, passengers can go anywhere along the line - Montauk, Amagansett, East Hampton, Sag Harbor, Bridgehampton, Water Mill, Southampton, Hampton Bays, Quogue, Westhampton Beach, and Eastport - with minimum time and effort.

"Hampton Subway hereby joins Hampton Jitney and the Long Island Railroad in doing our part in the effort to get folks off County Road 39 for the winter while the workmen make the necessary repairs there from now until Memorial Day."

When asked if the station will continue to operate after Memorial Day 2008, Mr. Aspinall said it certainly would if there was a need for it.

"We will leave the station open for three weeks after Memorial Day," he said. "If the numbers are there, we will make it a permanent stop on our system."

Week of October 20-27

NUMBERS: 117,212 riders used the Hampton Subway during this period. This was up 110,213 from last year and is attributed to a more successful Hamptons International Film Festival than last year.

CLOSURES: The track between Bridgehampton and East Hampton will be closed for regular maintenance on October 30 from 2 to 5 a.m. Riders are urged to find alternate transportation during these hours.

BIRTHDAYS: Token Clerk, Allison Gaines, October 22. Conductor, Rae McMannus, October 23.

THANKS to the Jim Turner Band for its two-hour performance on the Southampton platform to entertain Fred Thogfeller at his 90th birthday party held on the easterly end of the platform there.