Potawatomi Zoo officials are excited to launch their new train during limited winter hours this weekend.
The zoo took delivery of the new train this week and staff pulled it out Wednesday to give me a peek. Zoo executive director Josh Sisk says this train is electric, replacing one that was powered by a combustion engine.
“So for 25 years, the zoo being a conservation organization, having that train set out there and just burn unleaded gas all day long to drive visitors around the zoo, we knew it was time for an upgrade and that’s why we’re pretty excited about having this new Huntington electric train, really lives our mission and really gives visitors the same excitement and feel as the old train," Sisk says.
Sisk says people were sad to see the old train go so he was a bit nervous about replacing it.
”But the performance on this new train is so much better," he says. "The old train, for one, used to break down all the time, so we’d have months at a time where the train wasn’t running, which was unfortunate for our visitors. But this one also, it doesn’t get caught up on the tracks, it keeps a certain speed, the brakes are better on it, the sound effects are more life-like on it, it’s a much smoother ride, so this train comes with a lot of new upgraded standards that will be pretty cool for people to see.”
The roughly 5-minute train ride will still cost $3. Sisk says that ticket revenue will help pay for its $650,000 cost, along with a sponsorship by the Indiana & Michigan Power Foundation.
Also new for this season, the zoo will have a new rhino named Frankie and a set of newborn white-fronted marmosets. And the colobus and Diana monkeys will be in new spaces.
The zoo will be open 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday the next three weekends before opening for the season March 28.
