The Greenport Village Board held off last week on voting on a proposed contract with Hampton Jitney that would require the bus company to pay a $15,000 annual maintenance fee for the use of the parking lot south of the Long Island Rail Road station. Officials said the language in the proposed contract contradicted itself in spots. READ
Hampton Jitney customers received an email early Friday alerting them to a security breach that may have compromised personal information stored with the company and were advised to change their passwords, according to a copy of the email. READ
Cars are left in the Hampton Jitney parking lot in Greenport “for months and months and months,” according to Greenport Village Trustee Mary Bess Phillips.
Village Board members also believe some people leave their vehicles there for the entire winter.
It goes without saying that anyone who has been diagnosed with cancer must contend with a seemingly inexhaustible number of challenges. Hampton Jitney and the Sag Harbor nonprofit Fighting Chance partnered last year to ease one of those challenges by arranging transportation for patients to meet with New York City oncology specialists.
![[Click to enlarge] Pictured is a map of all the weekend ferry and bus trips provided by Sea Jitney. (Credit: Courtesy)](https://riverheadnewsreview.timesreview.com/files/SeaJitney_Map_R3.jpeg)
[Click to enlarge] Pictured is a map of all the weekend ferry and bus trips provided by Sea Jitney. (Credit: Courtesy)
The Bridgeport-Port Jefferson Ferry is partnering with Seastreak and Hampton Jitney to offer a new travel system called Sea Jitney, which will ferry passengers from Long Island to Manhattan, New Jersey and Connecticut. (more…)
CARRIE MILLER PHOTO | Taste North Fork shuttle bus stops are now scheduled for 25 locations during Veteran’s Day weekend.
With less than a month to go, details of the first-ever Taste North Fork festival are falling into place with more than 50 local wineries, restaurants, hotels and shops signing up to participate.
On Tuesday, Hampton Jitney released the official list of more than 20 stops (see below) the free shuttles it will be making on Veteran’s Day weekend.
The three-day event will feature a full range of activities celebrating local wines and foods across the region. Wineries, as well as local breweries and distilleries, will be invited to offer special tasting menus paired with foods from local restaurants.
The buses will run in a loop between Riverhead and Greenport. There will also be feeder buses from the Cross Sound Ferry and Long Island Rail Road. Stops will be made at each location approximately every 45 minutes during business hours.
The pilot program is being made possible through a portion of a $335,000 “I Love NY” grant, aiming to help promote agritourism on the East End. Since the East End Tourism Alliance, Long Island Wine Council and North Fork Promotion Council unveiled the plan in August the event has received an overwhelming response from local businesses and town officials, organizers said.
Southold, Greenport and Mattituck have all signed on to host their own “mini-festivals” in honor of Taste North Fork through the holiday weekend.
North Fork Promotion Council president Joan Bischoff said he hopes the shuttle program can continue next year for the entire summer season.
“We have to make sure it’s not a bridge to nowhere,” he said. “We would like some sort of annual event in the slow season to bring in tourists.”
The list of stops are as follows:
Baiting Hollow Farm Vineyard
Bedell Cellars
Castello di Borghese
Clovis Point
Coffee Pot Cellars
Duck Walk Vineyards
Jamesport Vineyards
Jason’s Vineyard
Kontokosta Winery
Macari
Osprey’s Dominion
Palmer Vineyards
Pellegrini Vineyards
Pindar
Raphael
RoanokeVineyards
Sannino Bella Vita Vineyards
Sherwood House Vineyards
Sparkling Pointe
Waters Crest Winery
LI Spirits Craft Distillery
Greenport
Southold
Mattituck
Orient Point (Cross Island Ferry connection)
BARBARAELLEN KOCH PHOTO | A pilot shuttle bus program will transport people to wineries, hamlets and local businesses.
Southold Town is throwing its support behind a new pilot shuttle bus service to connect wineries, hamlets and local businesses this Veterans Day weekend.
During Monday’s work session the board said it would assist the East End Tourism Alliance, Long Island Wine Council and North Fork Promotion Council in promoting the event.
“This would be an opportunity to advance business,” said Southold’s special projects coordinator Philip Beltz. “It needs to be successful so it can be continued.”
The pilot program is being made possible through a portion of a $335,000 “I Love NY” grant, aiming to help promote agritourism on the East End, said Joan Bischoff of the North Fork Promotional Council during the meeting.
The buses, which will be provided by Hampton Jitney, will run in a loop between Riverhead and Greenport. There will also be feeder buses from the Cross Sound Ferry and Long Island Rail Road. Stops will be made at each location approximately every 45 minutes during business hours.
The groups behind the shuttle are currently planning a ‘Taste North Fork” festival to coincide with the pilot program on Veterans Day weekend. The three-day event will feature a full range of activities celebrating local wines and foods across the region. Wineries, as well as local breweries and distilleries, will be invited to offer special tasting menus paired with foods from local restaurants.
Mr. Bischoff said he’d like the town’s help to expand participation to include small businesses, chambers of commerce and historical societies. He hopes stops could also be made within each individual hamlet.
“The hope is [that businesses] can come up with themes to showcase their community,” he said.
“It is a fantastic idea,” said Greenport Business Improvement District president Peter Clarke said after the meeting. “It makes sense for Greenport. It’s a pedestrian spot. People could stop and see a lot of things at one time.”
Mr. Clarke said he thinks the village could be use as a hospitality center where visitors can learn about the different locations where the shuttle will stop.
Mr. Bischoff said he hopes the shuttle program can continue next year for the entire summer season.
“We have to make sure it’s not a bridge to nowhere,” he said. “We would like some sort of annual event in the slow season to bring in tourists.”
The organizations are now working with the towns and the Hampton Jitney to finalize the exact shuttle route.
The Town Board agreed to host a meeting for all interested parties at the end of September to help promote the pilot program. No date has been set.
The North Fork wine trail attracts thousands of visitors each weekend. With dozens of vineyards to choose from, getting to each one – especially after the bottles have been uncorked – takes planning.
To help take the guess work out and get people to their destination safely, the East End Tourism Alliance and North Fork Promotion Council are launching a pilot shuttle bus service to connect wineries this Veterans Day Weekend.
The pilot program is being made possible through a portion of a “I Love NY” $300,000 grant, aiming to help promote agritourism in Suffolk County, according to Steven Bate, executive director of the Long Island Wine Council.
“The real transformative part of the project is to test out the feasibility of a free shuttle bus to facilitate tourist access for the huge New York metro population without their own cars,” he said.
The buses, which will be provided by Hampton Jitney, will run in a loop between Riverhead and Greenport. There will also be feeder buses from the Orient Point ferry and Long Island Rail Road. Stops will be made at each location approximately every 45 minutes during business hours, Mr. Bate said.
The groups behind the shuttle are currently planning a ‘Taste North Fork” festival to coincide with the pilot program on Veterans Day weekend. The three-day event will feature a full range of activities celebrating local wines and foods across the region, Mr. Bate said. Wineries, as well as local breweries and distilleries, will be invited to offer special tasting menus paired with foods from local restaurants.
Joan Bischoff of the North Fork Promotional Council said that he hopes the shuttle program can continue next year for the entire summer season.
The organizations are also now working with the towns on finalizing the exact shuttle route.
“We are very excited about this opportunity and very grateful to I Love NY for giving us the seed capital to launch what we hope will become an annual event that provides a significant seasonal boost to our local economy,” Mr. Bate said.
Hampton Jitney has opened up two new bus routes to run between the North Fork and New York City.
The Hampton Ambassador, a coach bus service, will now include a route along the North Fork on Friday and Sunday evenings, with stops along the North Fork.
The bus will run eastbound on Friday evenings and westbound on Sunday nights with stops from Greenport to the Tanger Outlet Center before heading into New York City.
The company had done trial runs of the new route previously, but recently added it permanently to its schedule, a Hampton Jitney employee said.
The buses feature wireless Internet and free movies during the trip, according to the company. Reservations can made by calling(631) 283-4676.
COURTESY PHOTO | The Greenport-Sag Harbor water taxi seen in its inaugural, and most likely last, season.
While he’s not officially pulling the plug on the Peconic Bay Water Jitney, partner Geoff Lynch told Times/Review Newsgroup Thursday it would take a “multi-million dollar” infusion of money for the Greenport-Sag Harbor water taxi service to sail again this summer.
Mr. Lynch, who confirmed an earlier report this week after he spoke at the Sag Harbor Village Board, is president of Hampton Jitney, which partnered with Mattituck businessman Jim Ryan in a pilot program last summer. Hampton Jitney can’t put up the money it would take to keep the enterprise afloat, Mr. Lynch said.
“We can’t do it alone,” he added.
There were no expectations the business would make money on the initial season, Mr. Lynch said, but there were higher expectations on numbers of passengers taking the excursions around Shelter Island to both forks.
At the end of the season Mr. Lynch told the East End Transportation Council — a group of representatives from the five eastern towns exploring transportation services — the water taxi carried about 15,000 passengers since it launched in June 2012. Those who used the service praised it, Mr. Lynch said.
“We had nothing but positive feedback,” he said.
He said he hopes that at some point there will be water-borne service on Peconic Bay such as the water taxi offered, but held out little hope for the 2013 season.
He is expected to carry the same message he gave to the Sag Harbor Village Board last week to Greenport at that Village Board work session on Tuesday, January 22, or the regular meeting on Monday, January 28.