Dog and cat owners of America, rejoice: A five-year highway appropriations bill that Congress reportedly agreed to on Tuesday instructs Amtrak to develop a policy allowing pets on passenger trains.
The provision, tucked into page 877 of a 1,300-page bill, would create a pilot program for the government-subsidized rail system. According to the legislation, Amtrak will have to dedicate at least one car per train “in which a ticketed passenger may transport a domesticated cat or dog in the same manner as a carry-on baggage.”
There are some restrictions.
The dog or cat would have to be “contained in a pet kennel” that complies with Amtrak size requirements for carry-on bags. The passenger transporting the pet will have to pay a fee, which would offset Amtrak’s cost of accommodating pets. The authors of the bill made clear that “no federal funds may be used to implement the pilot program.” The government is facing a debt crisis, after all.
Amtrak, for its part, would have to keep pet cars at a “temperature controlled in a manner protective of cat and dog safety and health.” After a year of operating the pet pilot program, Amtrak will be required to submit a report to relevant congressional committees assessing how it worked.
For a the dog-loving lawmakers who have long advocated for pet-friendly Amtrak policy, it was a great day. The first push for such a change came in 2013, with the introduction of the Pets On Train Act, a legislative effort with bipartisan support that failed to get much traction. Earlier this year, language from that bill was inserted into a House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee rail reform bill, which, likewise, stalled in Congress.
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