Not to mention, babies wear diapers, people aren't allergic to them.
I'm allergic to them.
They make my face turn red and my ears pound and my fists clench and my blood pressure skyrocket and even make me hyperventilate. Also they give me a huge desire to turn them into footballs with the goal post being an open vestibule door, but that's a different story.
I bet they could charge LOTS more, like $100/dog, and people would still pay it. The fee on most planes is $100-$200, why make it less than that?
I do agree that its not really practical and amtrak will never do it.
Allright. Lets make it 90 profit per purr-or-pooch. Let me re-run the numbers for Amtrak's only LD train to cover its above the rails expenses... 4,000,000/365/2/90= 61 dogs on each train, 122 a day, to make the Auto Train profitable over the rails. Its still not realistic.
And for perspective, I'm a bit of a furry. I love dogs, cats, mice, gerbils, rats, snakes, tigers, and just about every other living animal there is, and I wouldn't mind most of them as a pet. I still don't want them on a train I'm on. I have enough problems with poorly trained adult humans who know when they are being rude and obnoxious, more than enough with children who should have at least an inkling of it. And they at least, when making inappropriately on the floor, generally confine so doing to the restrooms.
Dogs and cats are unconscious of human politeness when trained to their best, and still will make on the floor if they aren't taken out for long enough. And we are talking about very well trained animals. Now consider that their are Amtrak passengers who think appropriate training for a screaming kid in the dining car who wants ice cream is to tell them to keep screaming, they aren't getting it. If I had done that in my youth, I would have a hand-shaped welt on my face for a week.
Can you really expect most of these people to train their animals any better then their children? I'm not thinking of your well trained cats/dogs/birds, Mercedes. I'm sure you and they would comport themselves well. I'm thinking of the other 95%- and want no part of it.