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Thanks Glen.  I had assumed that they must have made some kind of statement based on environmental reasons, based on some of the comments on other forums.  Here is a message that I posted on RPN forum: When I heard this story [GC ending steam], my first suspicion was that the new ownership might be following the dictates of the green movement. And since a large part of this green trend is about perception and fashion, it is much more subjective to measure than simple dollars. It is as much about doing things that show you care as it is about doing things that can be measured. Certainly it is true that a tourist railroad where the main attraction is scenery may not need to rely on steam locomotives to draw their customers as much a tourist railroad where the main attraction is steam. But in the perception of the green movement, not only is the scenery attraction not dependent on steam locomotives, but also it is seen as being harmed by them. I would think that as a group, Grand Canyon visitors would be much more eco-conscious than the average of the general population, and therefore much more sensitive to anything that seems out of step with the green movement, and steam locomotives would be a preeminent example of non-green. They symbolize it. Like other natural attractions, there is a growing desire to limit access by automobile because traffic jams, and parking lots seem incongruous and even threatening to the attraction itself. As I understand it, the GCRY plays a key role in protecting the canyon from automobile incursion. So the railroad is not just a secondary attraction, but it is also performing a green function to serve the green attraction of the canyon itself. So the primary function of this railroad is green alternative transportation, and as such, the perfect embodiment would be in the model of federally subsidized, electrified light rail transit.
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