Bring Your Pet on Amtrak

Effective this past weekend, Amtrak is allowing travelers to bring their pets aboard regular trains on the Northeast Corridor, and aboard Acela trains on weekends. Trips from Lorton, VA, to Sanford, FL, aboard the Amtrak Auto Train, however, will remain animal-free.

Bringing your four-legged friend costs $25, and the dog plus carrier bag must weigh a total of no more than 20 pounds. (Service animals continue to have no restrictions and travel free.)

The program comes thanks to legislation proposed by Rep. Jeff Denham (R-CA) in 2015, when his pup Lily was denied transit on an Amtrak train.

Amtrak ran a trial period to test the idea from September 28, 2015 to February 15, 2016, during which 2,700 animals rode the trains without a single incident.