E-mail today:

I was sort of expecting this since last week when Lance Fritz said that UP would be cutting all non-essential spending for the remainder of 2020. It sucks, but I think UP made the right call here. A lot of western states are beginning to sort of do "soft re-openings" with businesses beginning to open with social distancing guidelines in place. Now if that is effective at both staving off economic ruin and fast spread of the virus has yet to be seen; but even then I still feel a Big Boy tour would be highly inappropriate in this situation.

Especially if several more populated states are still having massive issues with the virus, it would seem disrespectful to have the pageantry and gala of UP Steam active during this. Second, with the crowds that UP Steam always draws... there is no way to social distance in those crowds. I remember feeling like UP Steam managed to draw bigger crowds in small towns in Utah last year than some crowds I have seen leaving sporting events or at Disneyland! There is really no way for UP to manage that crowd control.

Furthermore with the drop in freight traffic, UP has to tend their house elsewhere and figure out how to survive the economic waves right now. I am super glad that UP has proudly stated 2021 will be a return of force for the steam team, first because it probably will allay some of the more ridiculous rumormongers in the railfan community; but secondly because it will hopefully mean 2021 will be a return victory lap of sorts for UP Steam.