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 entire train was on the rails making its way to the Sault for arrival within days as the announcement was being made by city officials, CN executives and Sault MPP David Orazietti.
The world famous one-day wilderness excursion has fallen on hard times in recent years and the aging rolling stock was deteriorating badly.
Replacing 26 obsolete coaches – more than 50 years old or more – with 14 newer cars shouldn't be a major drop-off in capacity, said McMillan, since half the fleet had been taken out of service. Ridership had dwindled to under 600 passengers. The new service will accommodate 900 passengers
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.
McMillan said there's never been any major problems or hold-ups between the city and CN in putting the money into action. “It was about finding the right equipment to fit the needs of the tour train.”
Together with the head of CN passenger operations, Terry O'Brien, McMillan said they searched North America “from Chicago, to St. Louis, to Moncton, to Pennsylvania looking at different opportunities and this particular ski train out of Denver fits perfectly.
“It's one complete set we can put right into service and it looks like a uniform-painting set of engines and coaches”
Having dedicated locomotives for the tour train, will allow CN to free up engines to haul more profitable freight cargoes.
The train set had been in service as recently as last March and remain in good shape, said Hallman, but some additional upgrades will be undertaken this year. “We think with a superior product that we're bringing in here it will help generate the increased tourism business.”
While the ski train was a losing proposition for its owners, Ansco Investments, it is a perfect opportunity for the Sault.
The F-40 locomotives should be powerful enough to traverse the 184 kilometres over the rugged terrain of the Canadian Shield to get to Agawa Canyon, north of the Sault. The engines were used to haul skiers from downtown Denver up into the mountains.
“They should have no problem getting to the canyon and back,” said McMillan.
CN will dispose of the old coaches and use the proceeds to re-invest back into the tour train service. The Sault Ste. Marie Economic Development will manage the food and beverage concession on the train.
Over the summer and fall, car upgrades will be carried out to install better seating, new carpeting and make handicapped accessibility improvements. Those will be done on a car-by-car basis this year at a rail refurbishment yard to be selected by CN.
The Sault EDC has a business plan which calls for other upgrades to enhance the traveler experience such as drop-down TV screens, wireless head sets in multiple languages, and on-board GPS-triggered technologies activated at various mile markers that launch tour guide features.
McMillan said those upgrades of between $1 million to $2 million hospitality improvements should improve ridership numbers.
Having a new train in place allows the city to launch a new marketing campaign to re-brand and re-logo the excursion with a fresh concept and style guide.
Despite closures of auto plants in Southern Ontario, McMillan said there are opportunities to appeal to Ontarians, particularly new immigrants, wanting to tour the province this summer, as well as make inroads back into the Sault's traditional tourism base, the U.S. Midwestern market.
McMillan said the rebirth of the Agawa Canyon tour train as the Sault's tourism attraction is a crowning achievement of a spate of good news on the local hospitality front.
Delta Hotels is taking over operations of the former Holiday Inn on the waterfront and is re-branding it into a four-star upscale venue with $6 million in renovations. City council has also approved funding to extend the waterfront board, for a new rink, new indoor soccer pitches and to finish the Hub Trail, the bike-pedestrian path on the city's perimeter.
However the city's tourism boat is still looking for a new buyer.
Frank Prouse, owner of the Chief Shingwauk of Lock Tours Canada, announced he would not operate this summer for the first time in more than 40 years because of declining tourism numbers.
McMillan said the EDC is looking for new operator and with a couple of local businesspeople have expressed interest.
agawacanyontourtrain.com
