BY BILL BRADLEY
Sudbury Tourism and its funding partners have opened a new
Visitor Information Centre at the VIA Rail station on Elgin St.
The info centre is  open  from 10 am to 6 pm,
seven days a week during the summer months to provide visitors
with information on services, events, attractions and
activities available across the city.
The centre is a pilot project funded by $20,000 from the
Ontario Ministry of Tourism and $8,750 from FedNor.
Sudbury MPP Rick Bartolucci and Louise Paquette, director
general of FedNor, attended the recent funding announcement.
They both have fond memories of the train station.
"This building is 99 years old and is considered a heritage
building. I remember coming down here as a kid just to see,
like lots of other youngsters, just who was getting off the
train," said Bartolucci.
 Paquette said, "I too do remember those trains. I
loved to come down and stand around just to hear the conductors
yelling out All Aboard!"
Mayor David Courtemanche said he was happy to see the old
train station being used for a tourism centre.
"There in a case is the axe used by John Bowland to blaze
the first survey line for the CPR into Sudbury. It was
presented to Sudbury city council back in 1921 and I am glad it
is hanging on these walls," Courtemanche said.
Museum curator Jim Fortin and the Northern Ontario Railway
Museum and Heritage Centre are responsible for the historic
displays at the new kiosk.
Fortin says Sudbury's history is of interest to tourists.
"The photos here show the railways, the types of engines used over a period of a hundred years in this area. You can really see the impact of the railways on the settlement of the city itself and how important rail transportation was and still is," said Fortin.
