Empire Builder Chicago to Seattle in mid-winter

[Rasputin]

I think it is based on the estimate, from past years, on how many bears are likely to be killed even if BNSF took all reasonable precautions to keep bears off their property and prevent bear deaths.

 

[zephyr17]

How can they determine what bear kills are BNSF's fault or the bear's fault from getting too close to the track?

I think all bear hits on the right of way are credited to BNSF. And any bear pieces found near the ROW, too.

I don't think grizzlies are exposed to Operation Lifesaver.

 

[Cal]

I don't think grizzlies are exposed to Operation Lifesaver.

Seems like poor advertisement on their part!

 

[Sidney]

I’ll be riding the Builder in early March from Chicago to Seattle. Got a low bucket roomette. I have ridden that train in the heat of summer and depths of winter. I took a February trip many years ago. The actual air temperature was minus 23 in North Dakota. Only problem was doors freezing up and you couldn’t go outside. during fresh air breaks. Two days later I was on the Coast Starlight in Southern California where the temp hit 87.

several years ago we rode the Builder in July. Temp was in the 90 s and part of the track buckled. We were fifteen hours late into Chicago. We were put up at a hotel in Milwaukee

Always an adventure riding the Builder!

 

[Metra Electric Rider]

Hitting a bear wouldn't derail a train, but would pretty thoroughly smash the bear. Hitting cars doesn't generally derail trains, and cars are both heavier and made out of metal.

I understand bear hits by trains are relatively common on Marias Pass, as there is often spilled grain from wheat hoppers trackside and the bears are attracted to it. Not healthy for the bears, but little effect on trains.

Good thing Ranger Smith's bears prefer pickanick baskets....

Interesting, on a serious note, didn't realize that they were attracted to the tracks, but not at all surprised. I have late neighbors who were camping in Glacier and the husband told the wife, after they left their campsite that it was where the bear attacks had been several years before. She was not amused...

 

[UserNameRequired]

The bears sound like a trespasser incident to me.

 

[Siegmund]

I understand bear hits by trains are relatively common on Marias Pass, as there is often spilled grain from wheat hoppers trackside and the bears are attracted to it. Not healthy for the bears, but little effect on trains.

Interesting, on a serious note, didn't realize that they were attracted to the tracks, but not at all surprised.

It's not so much "attracted to the tracks," or even "attracted to free food", as "prone to alcoholism." Piles of grain left to rot beside the tracks will ferment.
Between fixating on the...ah...unusual food source, and impaired judgment, they tend not to get out of the way the way they normally would if they heard something big and noisy approaching.

That is basically the argument for blaming BNSF, not Amtrak: if the grain didn't spill, or was properly cleaned up, the bears wouldn't be standing there when the train came.

There would be some modest number of accidental kills even with no grain spillage, but I suspect quite a bit less than 18. You may be assured that Montana Fish and Game is not thinking of the bears' welfare, but of the expensive hunting tags they can't sell if the bears are killed by nonhunters.

At least in winter the bears are asleep. Other big game may use the tracks as travel corridors since they are plowed. I imagine BNSF has to plow escape ramps for them in places.

 

[Northwestern]

https://is.gd/6njN1Q
In one year, 3-4 years ago, trains killed 8 bears in or around Glacier Park. Three were killed by freight trains and five by Amtrak.