A plan for a test run allowing pets on Metra trains on one line for weekends only was derailed Friday following rider concerns about allergies, barking dogs and animal odors, the Sun-Times is reporting.
The proposed experiment was pulled from the agenda for the Metra Board’s Friday meeting pending further study, Board Chairman Martin Oberman said.
“A number of people had a very negative reaction to it,” Oberman explained later to reporters. “As with many issues, it seems simple, and then you start to think about it and it’s complicated.”
Oberman said board members want to hear more about how other rail systems handle pets on board before greenlighting a weekends-only pilot program on the Rock Island Line.
Several concerns were raised about how riders with pet allergies would be affected, Oberman said.
Others who emailed Metra worried about “bad smells coming from pets” or sitting next to barking dogs, Gillis said. However, the draft policy, as written, would have addressed those particular concerns, he said.
The policy would have allowed conductors to boot animals who became disruptive, noisy or created an odor.
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In addition, all pets would have to come on board in a crate — and that crate would have to be small enough to fit under a Metra seat or in the owner’s lap.
Asked Friday if a Metra “pet car” could be studied as a possibility, Oberman said, “I suppose everything is open to consideration,” though such a car could pose “logistical” challenges.
Metra’s citizen advisory board signed off on the idea of a pets-on-board experiment last month after more than 4,000 people signed an online petition supporting the idea. However, some of the advisory board members said they had serious reservations.
Since the pro-pet petition launched more than a year ago, Metra has received 30 to 40 emails about a pets-on-board policy, with three quarters of them against the idea, Gillis said.
