Local News

Here’s looking at you, kid: MBTA adds googly eyes to several trains following grassroots campaign

A spokesperson said the T installed googly eyes on a handful of trains “as part of our ongoing efforts to bring moments of joy to our riders' daily commutes.”

The MBTA says it has added googly eyes to five vehicles across the Green Line and commuter rail. MBTA/Courtesy Photo

June 26, 2024

In a feat of extraordinary — and whimsical — engineering, the MBTA has added oversized googly eyes to several of its trains.

No, this is not an April Fools’ joke. In fact, the snazzy new accessories are an official response to a grassroots movement intended to make Boston’s public transit system a little more fun.

“After receiving public suggestions, our team found a safe way to install these ‘googly’ eyes on a limited number of vehicles … as part of our ongoing efforts to bring moments of joy to our riders’ daily commutes,” T spokesperson Joe Pesaturo said in a statement.

Previously:

A vision for the T: Two locals want to give trains googly eyes

According to Pesaturo, riders can now check out the googly eyes on five trains across the Green Line and commuter rail. An eagle-eyed Reddit user spotted a pair on a Green Line trolley in Packard’s Corner Tuesday.

Pesaturo said the googly eyes fit into the T’s ongoing search for creative ways to improve rider experience, whether it’s through in-station musical performances, children’s voiceover announcements, or the agency’s “Share the Love” campaigns.

“We hope these initiatives, combined with our transit ambassadors’ dedication and our staff’s hard work on infrastructure upgrades, will continue to be a source of community connection and brighten someone’s day,” he said.

Two Massachusetts residents, John Sanchez and Arielle Lok, organized a march for googly eyes back in April.

“It’s a movement about silliness and improving the lives and personality of Boston and its transit system. But it’s also about empathy. You stare into the train and the train stares back,” Sanchez told Boston.com at the time.

In their event description for the march, Sanchez and Lok noted googly eyes are a substantially cheaper improvement compared to the T’s nearly $25 billion backlog of upgrades and repairs.

“This is bigger than me just wanting googly eyes on the front of a train,” Lok told Boston.com. “This is a new vision for the T — which is giving the T vision.”