As long as the steam program continues to make an expensive
nuisance of itself, the possibility of it being shut down is
real.

When the 4014 was drug from West Colton to Cheyenne, the
trip should have consumed 6 pilot crews and taken 6 days to
do.

Instead it took almost 2 weeks and burned through 34 pilot
crews and that many deadheads to make the journey, in the
middle of a shortage of crews south of Salt Lake City.

With the newly released schedule, the move of the locomotives
from Cheyenne to Ogden, which normally (and for decades did)
require 2 days and 2 crews each direction will take 8 crews
and 11 days to go west and 5 days and 5 crews to return.

That is 13 days, 13 pilot crews and 13 deadheads to do what
would normally be done in 4 days, with 4 pilot crews and no
deadheads.

The days of the program being minimally disruptive to normal
freight operations and keeping it's costs under tight control
are obviously long gone.

The top execs who are focused on the Operating Ratio will notice.