Amerika Expressen in Ree Park

Amerika Expressen (The America Express) in Ree Park in the enclosure for American black bear. Amerika Expressen was built in 2016 and is a railway that passes through the enclosures for American bison, American black bear and Arctic wolf. The tour takes about 20 minutes and is guided by a guide that sits in its own coach at the rear of the train. The tour was quite interesting but a quite bad way to experience the animals. The coaches are very small and it was crowded inside. Unfortunately, at many places, the track goes thorugh a cut in the ground and this toghether with a very low train makes it difficult to observe the animals. You are too cose to the ground to get a good view. I definitely prefer the Land Rover Safari. Only one set of coaches is present but they have two engines they can shift between. On this picture the train is pulled by the diesel engine "Armstrong", named after one of the persons involved in the construction of the railway. The other engine is a real-working steam engine called "Black Beauty"

Thanks @Anton for the great photos that you've recently added to ZooChat. Out of curiosity, is there any way to have the windows down on the train or can the bison, bears and wolves only be seen through a rolled-up window? I know that in North America the windows would be permanently up, but in Europe zoos are much more relaxed about those kind of guidelines.

Thank you @snowleopard No, the windows on the train can't be opened and the doors are locked from the outside. However, the guide coach has an outside platform and the guide does often stand there instead of sitting inside the coach. On the diesel engine, both doors to the cab are normally open. As you can see in this picture, the driver is also looking at the bears that are to the left outside the picture The steam engine does not have a closed cab. I saw an interview with one of the drivers and he said he had to throw out a bear cub from the cab once.

I quite agree with you regarding the guidelines. In Scandinavian safari parks you can normally roll down your windows in areas with herbivores. In Knuthenborg Safaripark in Denmark you can even park your car in some of the enclosures and get out in the enclosure to see the animals close up. A really nice feature! However, as you mentioned predators. I would say that in Scandinavia we are extremely strict with safety regulations regarding predators. All predator enclosures have double gates and it's absolutely forbidden to roll down the windows, even in enclosures where it might have been possible (like for example wolf enclosures). Normally, all predator enclosures are also constantly monitored by patrol vehicles