Dan's Papers - July 11, 2008 - The Hampton Subway Newsletter

Jerry Seinfeld and Jon Stewart were seen talking to one another on the platform in Southampton. Kim Cattrall was on the platform up in Springs, heading, she said, to pick up her pet dog at the groomer in Water Mill. Financier Wilbur Ross was seen boarding the subway at Shinnecock, bound for Westhampton Beach and some big meeting, he said.

Last Friday morning, just in time for the Fourth of July rush, the western half of the subway system serving Southampton, Hampton Bays, Westhampton Beach, Riverhead, Flanders, North Sea and Noyac, which was damaged for the last two weeks, reopened to the public. A record number of subway riders used the system. The last record, which was for the week of June 17 to 24, was 15,245 riders. This past week, with half the community unaware that we'd done the big clean-up, 15,246 riders used the subway - just one more rider, but one more rider nevertheless.

A man named Fred Pingsley, of Bay Shore, who says he was forced to ride the subway from Amagansett to Montauk last Saturday morning, has hired a lawyer and served notice that he intends to sue the subway system for $34.2 million.

According to Pingsley, he was walking along Main Street in Amagansett, minding his own business, when at exactly 11:29 a.m., a manager of the subway system, who he identified as Wallace T. Townsend, grabbed him from behind and carried him against his will down the subway stairs to the turnstile, put in a token and then threw him onto the train to Montauk. When he protested while all this took place, he was told that the record for the most subway riders for the week was about to be broken and that because the week officially ends at 11:30 a.m. on Saturday morning, they needed one more person to make it happen because the subway rider total was tied with the prior record.

After being shoved on the train and while the doors were still open, Pingsley said that was just about enough, that the record had been broken and he should be let go, but Townsend told him they also needed to break the number of miles record, and still needed eight more. The doors closed and the train took off.

Pingsley said he was able to take the return trip back to Amagansett without further expense on the next westbound subway, but because of the way he was treated and the hour he lost, he is suing.

More than 3,000 broken antique light fixtures, each of them quite valuable, were sold at the yard sale at the Montauk yards last Friday. All of these light fixtures had been sheared off the underside of the subway tube ceilings by the maiden and disastrous voyage of the double-decker subway cars made in Sweden especially for this subway. Some of the light fixtures were in good condition and some not. All but about 50 sold.

The yard sale was supervised by volunteers under the aegis of Mrs. Bob Aspinall, who said that after deducting for expenses, more than $55 was raised for charity.

The Hampton Subway would like to offer its apologies to Fred Pingsley of Bay Shore for the over-enthusiastic way he was treated last Saturday morning at the Amagansett Station. Although we feel there was not enough done for him to have endured sufficient emotional suffering and financial damage to sue, we nevertheless would have preferred that he'd been treated in a more respectful manner.

Our general manager, Wallace T. Townsend, also offers his apologies for the way he behaved, saying that his judgment was impaired by the excitement of his determination to set the new record, and if Mr. Pingsley would like to meet him directly and get a personal apology, he should go to the newsstand on the East Hampton platform, to which Townsend has been reassigned as assistant cashier. He says he would like to buy you, Mr. Pingsley, the magazine of your choice.