Dan's Papers - August 22, 2008 - The Hampton Subway Newsletter

Week of August 22 - August 29, 2008
Riders this week: 15,862
Rider miles this week: 141,266

Senator Joe Biden of Delaware and presidential wannabe John McCain were seen walking and talking as they came down the escalator at the Southampton station Saturday. Playwright Edward Albee was reading a book on the platform of the Montauk station on Tuesday. Elle MacPherson and Russian tennis star Maria Sharapova were on the Westhampton local bound for Riverhead. Shopping at Tanger?

Tom Wadsworth and Pete Billingswood, both of Southampton, were arrested on the Sag Harbor platform on Friday after making a scene about not being able to get to Foxwoods by subway. They had apparently been told that the subway tunnel under construction from Sag Harbor to that casino had been completed when in fact it had not. They were carrying more than $11 thousand in cash when arrested. Both paid their bail in cash and headed home the next morning, by taxi.

Several workmen, returning to their homes in Shirley after a day's work digging the subway tunnel, now under Long Island Sound on its way to Foxwoods in Connecticut, say that the black liquid seeping into the tunnel is oil. They held a press conference on Saturday with what they say was a jar of oil that they say they smuggled out from the dig.

"It's seeping in from several places," one of the men said. "The Hampton Subway crew leaders have pumps going. But we think it is a dangerous situation."

A spokesperson for Hampton Subway, Arlene Pressman, said that the jar of gasoline held up at the press conference could have come from any gas station in the area. She scoffed at the idea that the tunnel being dug had hit oil.

"Whatever it is, it is a small amount not even worth discussing," she said. "We are pressing on. Our tunnel should reach Westerly within two weeks. Foxwoods is almost in sight," she said, referring to the fact that the resort sticks up 12 stories above the forest. Everyone laughed at that.

The Hampton Classic will be transporting more than 400 horses to the show by subway between midnight and five a.m. on Thursday. We expect the rocking motion of the train will relax them as they sleep on the ride from Westhampton Beach to Bridgehampton at a very stately nine miles an hour, so surely they will be ready for the very stiff competition that begins later that morning. Subway riders should be aware that trains following the horse train will be going only nine miles an hour from 4 - 8 a.m., and that all the windows will be closed. After that, the Westhampton line will be closed for cleanup for one hour.

The Bellmore Lab in Westbury, where samples of the black ooze that has been seeping into the new tunnel to Connecticut had been taken for analysis, has burned to the ground. It was a troublesome fire. The Westbury Fire Department would get the fire under control, but then it would flare up again.

"It seemed like somebody was pouring gasoline on it while we were putting it out," Fire Chief Patterson said. "It's under control now, but it's a total loss."

I'd like to comment, while vacationing here in Hawaii, about the claims that the black liquid they are finding in the tunnel we are digging under Long Island Sound is possibly oil. Nothing could be further from the truth. Some of the workmen who have encountered it say it smells more like molasses than anything else.

In any case, the delays caused by this stuff seeping in are minimal. So far, in the last 12 days, they are just six days behind schedule. And as fast as the stuff seeps into the tunnels, the faster we pump it back out into the open sea, where it simply floats away to points unknown. Not our problem.