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These Trains Have Eyes!

Do the subway cars in Boston, Massachusetts, have faces? No, but they have eyes!

A black subway car with decal eyes on the front leads a number of other cars on an outdoor track.

Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority

Eyes make Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority trains look like they have faces!

Fans of Thomas the Tank Engine or The Little Engine That Could, listen up! Just as those fictional trains have faces, some real-life trains do too. Eyes have been added to a few subway trains in Boston, Massachusetts, making life a little more fun for the city’s travelers.

Phillip Eng, who runs Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA), said the idea came from a group of city residents. The group even brought a package of plastic googly eyes to the MBTA headquarters and suggested sticking them on the front of the city’s subway trains.

“When I saw it, it made me laugh,” Eng told the Associated Press. “I thought we could do something like that to have some fun.”

Eng loved the idea but decided not to use the plastic eyes, fearing they’d fall off the trains and become a safety hazard. Instead, the MBTA used decals (stickers) that look just like googly eyes, without the moving eyeballs. Added to the other details on the front of each train, the eyes make it look like the trains have faces.

The front of a purple subway car with decal eyes that is sitting on an indoor track.

Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority

The MBTA added the eyes to only five of its trains so that getting to ride a train with eyes would be rare and special for travelers. Eng compared this to Where’s Waldo, the book series in which readers try to find a man named Waldo in a series of complicated pictures.

“When we chatted about it, [we decided] it would be like finding Waldo,” he told the Associated Press. “It gave us all a chance to have a laugh and for the people who use our service to have some fun.”

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Did You Know?

Examples of public art include a mural on the side of a building and four large outdoor sculptures.

© Faina Gurevich, Patrick Gosling, F11photo, Arevhamb/Dreamstime.com, © travel4brews.com (CC BY 2.0); Photo composite Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

Googly eyes make city trains more fun. Similarly, public art can make life in a town or city more interesting and enjoyable. Public art is any art that’s created for the public. It’s often found on streets, sidewalks, and the sides of buildings. Have you spotted any public art? 

Have a Fun Trip!

Many cities have buses and trains that allow people to get around. But some places have forms of transportation that might not exist anywhere else. Click through the slideshow to check out just a few creative conveyances!
Two wicker toboggans have two passengers each and are each being pushed by two men.
In Madeira, off the coast of Africa, people can ride wicker and wood toboggans (sleds) on a downhill route that is a little over a mile (2 kilometers) from the town of Monte to the city of Funchal.
A suspension monorail on a track next to a row of buildings.
Wuppertal, Germany, is the home of the Wuppertal suspension monorail. A monorail is a train that runs on a one-beam track—but this one hangs from its track, making it appear upside down.
Small gondolas hang from cables above a city and each one holds a few passengers.
In Bolivia, a cable car system called Mi Teleférico carries people into the sky in cars called gondolas, helping them avoid traffic.
Several passengers are onboard a vaporetto on a canal that is lined with old buildings.
Waterways called canals crisscross through Venice, Italy, so it’s not surprising that a lot of people travel through the city on water. Vaporettos, or water buses, take many travelers where they need to go.
A child and an adult ride an outdoor escalator next to some buildings.
Hong Kong is hot, humid, and very hilly, making a summer walk pretty challenging. That’s why the city has outdoor escalators (moving walkways and stairways) that carry the public up the steep slopes!
© Clickos/Dreamstime.com, © Tupungato/Dreamstime.com, © Mikhail Dudarev/Dreamstime.com, © Detlef Voigt/Dreamstime.com, © Alexander Cimbal/Dreamstime.com

Getting Around

A flashing GIF shows a number of types of transportation from the past and present.
© FLHC 20212/Alamy, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (digital. id. cph 3b21115, LC-DIG-ppprs-00626), © Adie Bush—Image Source, monkeybusinessimages—iStock/Getty Images, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., © alpegor/stock.adobe.com, © Riderofthestorm, Emirhan Karamuk, Mikhail Leonov/Dreamstime.com; Animation Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
If you could pick any form of transportation to use, which would it be? Before you decide, check out Britannica’s article about transportation. Maybe you’ll get a few new ideas!
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conveyance

Part of speech:

noun

Definition:
: something that carries people or things from one place to another : vehicle
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