The revitalization of Sault Ste. Marie's Agawa Canyon tour train with new locomotives and passenger coaches is being hailed by the city's tourism czar as a "renaissance" for the local hospitality sector.
After some lean years in tourism, Ian McMillan, director of Tourism Sault Ste. Marie, said getting a major icon attraction "fixed" should drive tourists back to the Sault as a destination attraction.
"As the tour train goes, so goes everything else."
Canadian National Railway (CN) and the Sault Ste. Marie Economic Development Corp. announced at a May 15 new conference of an agreement to bring a complete set of new locomotives and passenger coaches to the Sault from Colorado just in time to kick off the new excursion season which starts June 9.
CN, the operators of the tour train, is acquiring three Electro-Motive F-40 locomotives and 14 passenger cars, including eight coaches, two cafe/lounge cars, three club cars and a presentation cars from Ansco Investments of Denver, Colo.
The world famous one-day wilderness excursion has fallen on hard times in recent years and the aging rolling stock was deteriorating badly.
The $10 million in upgrades will be jointly financed between CN and the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund. That funding is nothing new. Sault MPP David Orazietti first made the announcement in 2007.
"Everybody is gratified that we were able to proceed with this public-private partnership to develop a better product for a very important tourist draw for the region," said CN spokesperson Mark Hallman.
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