Traveling by Houston public transit with a small dog
Photo by eflon
The Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County, Houston, Texas (“Metro” or “MTA”) operates bus lines, express bus lines, and light rail in Harris County. The city plans extensions to the light rail lines and the addition of a commuter rail system. The consensus appears to be that cars are still a necessity in Houston, but there’s hope for the future — and the public transportation that exists is clean and pleasant.
Metro’s pet policy is as follows: “Customers can carry a pet on the bus and the Rail as long as it is caged properly, they do not have to have a disability.”
Other regional public transit providers
Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown is a ten-county area collectively referred to as “Greater Houston.” Cars are the preferred means of travel in this area, but there are a couple of public transit systems to tell you about. Please let me know about others I’ve missed! (As always, when I don’t give you a link to the pet policy, I found out about it in a phone conversation.)
Fort Bend County operates a commuter bus service called TREK Express, which connects Sugar Land with “the Greenway Plaza and Galleria areas of Houston.” Only service dogs are allowed on board.
Galveston’s Island Transit operates bus and trolley services in the city of Galveston. Trolley services have been suspended because of damage suffered to the system in Hurricane Ike, but the bus system is still in operation. Small dogs in carriers are allowed on board.
For other posts about traveling with dogs on public transit, take a look at Dog Jaunt’s handy guide!
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Hi Dog Jaunt!
Thanks for continuing to provide info about where taking little pups on transit is OK. By the way I recently found out that pet dogs of all sizes can ride on Calgary Transit in Canada.
BUT also I was thinking: All dogs start small life small (!) and only some become too big for a bag or carrier at four, five or six months of age. So then for transit systems which only allow the wee ones, a transit rider may become a car driver when they want to take their dogs places.
Normally when operators allow dogs, we say it can mean a car driver turning into a transit customer, but it might be useful to look at it another way – and convey this clearly to operators – that when a transit customer gets a dog it means that they might stop riding transit.
Thanks for your hard work!
Todd Edelman, plus Obi and Mara
“Dogs on Board!” (see my website)
Hi, Todd! Thanks so much for your comment — I’m happy to hear about Calgary Transit, and I’m proud that here in Seattle, Metro allows big dogs (leashed and well-behaved, of course) on its buses and light rail. I hope other systems follow suit — your point is a good one that riders with growing dogs will eventually be forced onto the road in cars if their public transit systems don’t flex. Good luck and a scratch on the chest to you and your colleagues!