Dozens stuck on zoo monorail

The Minnesota Zoo monorail had just left its station around noon Friday when it stopped dead on its elevated track.

Jonas Lundquist, 9, and his dad, of St. Paul, were aboard, and Jonas admitted he was "kind of worried." They were 18 feet up in the air near the grizzly bear exhibit.

But the nice conductor lady calmly told them about the animals they would have seen. "She made sure nobody got scared or freaked out," Jonas said. Then she mentioned the train might have blown a fuse.

"I didn't want to jump off. I am kind of afraid of heights," Jonas said.

Part of a trainload of 44 passengers, including four moms, one of them pregnant, and four babies in his car, Jonas and his dad had to wait about two hours before they were rescued.

"I have never been stuck for two hours," he said. Among other concerns, he had a growing need to use a bathroom, he said.

Zoo electricians arrived and "tried a lot of stuff to make the train go. Nothing worked," Jonas said later from his St. Paul home.

Next, Apple Valley firefighters showed up and placed two ladders against the first car of the five-car monorail. They managed to open the two doors in the conductor's car up front, and everyone crawled through little hatches between the cars to get there, Jonas said.

The firefighters passed out small cards with pictures of fire engines to the kids. One firefighter helped Jonas and his dad climb down the ladder. By 2:06 p.m., all 44 passengers had gotten off safely without problems, said Fire Chief Nealon Thompson.

Zoo spokesman Bill Von Bank said that a power failure had stalled the train and that it would remain closed until the zoo determines what went wrong. The train was restarted after passengers left. Von Bank said the zoo reimbursed passengers for the admission price, gave them free tickets to visit again, and "Zoo Bucks" for some snacks.

"It was an adventure," said Mark Lundquist, Jonas' dad. After climbing down the ladder, Jonas said, his first stop was the bathroom. Then they hustled home to get ready for a movie night with his hockey buddies.

The monorail provides a bird's-eye view of many of the zoo's outdoor exhibits and runs about every 30 minutes when weather permits.

There have been previous incidents with the train. In June 2000, a monorail crashed into another zoo train, leaving one passenger paralyzed for months and injuring 10 others, according to news reports. A consultant blamed the incident on rodent droppings corroding electrical connections in the drive that controlled the train. The report also said the drives had been installed improperly, allowing the excrement and other debris to remain on the drives.

In August 1992 at the zoo, about 10 passengers had to be removed by ladder from a smoke-filled monorail car after an electrical fire broke out in a motor. Two teenage girls suffered minor smoke inhalation.

Jim Adams• 952-707-9996 Paul Walsh • 612-673-4482