The Bear Creek Christmas train won’t be running this year.
Posted to the Bear Creek Park Train & Mini Golf Facebook page Friday night (Nov. 20), it states the organizers are “sad to say” the train will be closed this holiday season.
“Even though Fraser Health regulations permit us to operate, we feel it’s safer for the public to remain closed during this time,” the post reads. “Thank you for understanding. Have a safe Christmas.”
Jassy Kaur, the owner of the train, said this would be the first time the Christmas train isn’t running.
“It was a very difficult decision. Trust me,” she told the Now-Leader Saturday morning (Nov. 21).
While Kaur said there were “zero” COVID-19 cases during the Halloween train run, she said, “Just because of the number of cases that are going up, we felt like it was just safer for the public. It’s not always about the profit.”
However, daily case counts in B.C. dropped Thursday and Friday from the record-high numbers earlier in the week.
READ ALSO: Latest COVID-19 restrictions starting to show results in B.C., Nov. 20, 2020
READ ALSO: B.C. records 516 more COVID-19 cases, second day of decline, Nov. 20, 2020
That drop in numbers could be attributed to provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry’s restrictions put in place Nov. 7, which banned household gatherings in the Fraser Health and Vancouver Coastal Health regions.
Those restrictions, among others, have now been implemented provincewide.
“Yes, we did see that. We actually were discussing that this morning. My conductors, they want us to open … They feel like because everything went so well for Halloween, and so smoothly, that they would want us to.”
READ ALSO: Halloween in Surrey: How COVID nearly derailed the train at Bear Creek Park, Oct. 15, 2020
Asked if that could lead to a possible change in plans, Kaur said she still feels like it’s “not enough yet for us to open.”
“If it was to drop a bit more, you know what, we would consider it. If something was to change by Dec. 1 drastically, we would probably consider (opening),” she noted. “But with Bonnie Henry making these changes, and it seems like they are working, I just need a little bit of movement for that.”
READ ALSO: Masks now mandatory in all public indoor and retail spaces in B.C., Nov. 19, 2020
READ ALSO: COVID-19: B.C. extends private gathering ban province-wide, Nov. 19, 2020
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