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Amtrak has expanded their carry-on pet program to include weekday service on Acela trains

By Kimberley Spinney

WASHINGTON, DC - NOVEMBER 22: An Amtrak train waits at a platform prior to its departure at Union Station November 22, 2017 in Washington, DC. The American Automobile Association (AAA) has predicted that nearly 51 million Americans will travel 50 miles or more this Thanksgiving holiday weekend. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON, DC - NOVEMBER 22: An Amtrak train waits at a platform prior to its departure at Union Station November 22, 2017 in Washington, DC. The American Automobile Association (AAA) has predicted that nearly 51 million Americans will travel 50 miles or more this Thanksgiving holiday weekend. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images) /
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Amtrak wants to make traveling with your pet easier than ever. And what better way to do that than by expanding their carry-on pet program to include weekday Acela trains?

In a press release on March 3, Amtrak announced that they were expanding their pet carry-on program to include weekday Acela trains, a change from their previous program which relegated pet travel to the weekends on this line.

According to Amtrak, cats and dogs that weigh up to 20 pounds are eligible for travel as part of their carry-on pet program on a first-come, first-serve basis. The Acela train has eight designated pet spaces that are available per departure at a cost of $26. Or, if you are a member of the Amtrak Guest Rewards program, you can pay for your pet with 800 points instead.

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While our pets are welcome on Amtrak trains, there are some rules that need to be followed. Our pets must be kept in their carrier at all times, and those carriers should be under your seat. That being said, the company also shared that pets are allowed in all of the train cars except for the Cafe cars and First Class cars.

Amtrak is making it easier to travel the northern corridor with our pets

On the pets travel page for Amtrak, we have everything we need to take our pet with us on shorter journeys. Although, by shorter journeys we actually mean train rides of up to seven hours.

In a statement from the Amtrak Vice President of the Northeast Corridor Service Line, Caroline Decker, she shares that, “We are delighted to expand our pet program to weekday Acela trains. Our customers will now have more options for traveling with their pets on the Northeast Corridor.”

The pet carry-on program launched back in 2015, and has been a relative success for Amtrak, with more than 170,000 pets and their humans traveling around the country. When it comes to alternate forms of transportation, Amtrak is a service that so many of us count on. And by offering expanded pet carry-on opportunities, more people will be able to “move about the country.”

As someone who actually enjoys and even prefers travel by train, this is the kind of program I love to see. Next step – allowing larger pups to travel with us too!

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What do you think of Amtrak expanding their pet carry-on program to weekdays on the Acela trains? Will you be taking advantage of this program in the future? Tell us in the comments below.

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