Congress agreed to a new highway spending bill on Tuesday, and buried more than 800 pages into that measure is a provision that will make dog-owners and cat-owners who travel by train very happy: Amtrak will soon have to allow the animals on many more trains.
Under the new bill, Amtrak will expand a pilot program that devotes at least one car per train to passengers toting a dog or cat (in a required travel bag, of course).
Amtrak has already allowed pets on some rail lines, but never all. This past October, the rail service announced it would begin testing a program on its Northeast Regional and Downeaster lines. The program allows a dog or cat, in a carrying bag, and under a weight limit of 20 lbs. (including the bag), for a $25 fee. It launched the program after first successfully doing so in Illinois.
As The Huffington Post reported, past pet programs by Amtrak have had the restrictions that pets had to be “odorless and harmless,” but there is no such language in the new bill. Perhaps that’s an encouraging change for anyone with a particularly stinky dog.
This article originally appeared on Fortune.com
More Must-Reads From TIME
- The 100 Most Influential People of 2024
- The Revolution of Yulia Navalnaya
- 6 Compliments That Land Every Time
- What's the Deal With the Bitcoin Halving?
- If You're Dating Right Now , You're Brave: Column
- The AI That Could Heal a Divided Internet
- Fallout Is a Brilliant Model for the Future of Video Game Adaptations
- Want Weekly Recs on What to Watch, Read, and More? Sign Up for Worth Your Time
Contact us at letters@time.com