Commuting can be a soul crushing experience. On good days when the trains run on time, it’s tolerable. On a bad day, commuters can feel like Murphy’s law is in full effect.
Can one simple addition spark joy in a rail commuter’s day ?
No, it’s not bringing back the bar car.
A group is asking NJ Transit to put “googly eyes” on trains, following a similar effort on Boston’s “T” commuter rail and Trolley/light rail system. Five T trains got the googly eye treatment last July, the AP reported.
So far 60 people have signed a petition started by two people calling themselves “googly eyes NJ” and asking NJ Transit add googly eyes to a few trains.
The googly eyes applied on the T trains are actually stickers, not the plastic moving eyes, organizers said. NJ Transit trains would get the same non-moving eyes, and organizers said they’d pay for the stickers.
John Sanchez and Arielle Lok, spearheaded the T campaign, which even included a lunch time march and demonstration at T headquarters in Boston. The organizers of this campaign said they are NJ Transit riders from Central Jersey.
While the organizers declined to identify themselves, one said they used to live in Boston and were “so inspired by Arielle and John’s vision for the T, we had to bring it home to NJ.”
Only a limited number of trains would be googly eyed, which keeps costs down and adds an element of surprise, organizers said in response to NJ Advance Media questions.
“The idea has been brought to the attention of the Customer Advocate,” said John Chartier, an NJ Transit spokesperson. “We will take it under advisement.”
Dressing up public transit equipment isn’t a new idea. Philadelphia’s Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority decorated retired buses for Christmas as part of its “Festibus” between 2013 and 2023, when funding cutbacks put an end to the practice.
The organizers of the Boston campaign were inspired by Vancouver, where every December, public transit buses are dressed up like Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer and given googly eyes and a large red nose. The TransLink Reindeer bus is a 39 year tradition and is used to collect and deliver toys for organizations such as Toys for Tots.
NJ Transit also has adorned select trains and buses with wraps to honor predecessor railroads and bus companies that formed the agency. Also honored with decorated trains are veterans, all branches of the armed services, Black history, LGBTQ pride and the most recently, a locomotive wrapped for Autism Acceptance month.
The Boston T’s googly eyes have held up well and organizers said “they’d be happy to replace any sad or damaged eyes” on NJ Transit trains, if needed.
The organizers “acknowledge that NJ Transit has more pressing problems,” but asked if an arriving train with an “unexpected set of googly eyes wouldn’t lift passengers’ spirits, “just a little?”
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