Gentlemen Riders of the MBTA, Get Ready for Your Close-Up


Attractive male passengers riding the MBTA — how’d you like to see your photographs posted online with witty captions about your jawline? Like it or not, it’s only fair to warn you that it’s probably going to happen.

The New York Times reported a few days ago on the rise of SubwayCrush.net — the NYC sister site to the London TubeCrush.net, in which cell-phone wielding admirers secretly snap and submit pictures of appealing guys they see on the train. It’s a little like CuteOverload.com, only a whole lot more stalkerish and with men instead of kittens. It kicked off earlier this year, and already has well over a hundred guys who had absolutely no idea their picture was being taken, categorized by train line and distinguishing feature, including but by no means limited to facial hair, butt, jawline, tattoo, handsome, hipster, and preppy.

Now lest you think this is only something that concerns you on your weekend jaunts to New York, that great land of sidewalk hotdogs and Central Park, let me set you straight: Even as I type this, the company has their sights on Boston, having met just last week to discuss expanding here. They’re fairly sure that MBTAcrush (or, you know, whatever name they ultimately pick), would do well here — and given that Massachusetts is one of the top three U.S. states driving traffic to their site and that they’re already receiving stray Boston photos to their New York site, according to TubeCrush.net/SubwayCrush.net co-creator Stephen Motion, odds are they’re probably right.

P.S. bus riders — this applies to you, too. They’re also planning to launch a version of the site that will allow people to submit their transport crushes from all forms of public transportation. So if you’re feeling shy, now is the time to buy a really big hat.