Brockville Tunnel drawing
 
Brockville Tunnel South end conceptual drawing
 
Brockville Tunnel North end conceptual drawing
 
Brockville Ontario - Anyone unfamiliar with Brockville's ongoing efforts to restore its historic railway tunnel now has a place to go to learn all about the project.
 
"It's time to get it out in the community," Jack Kenny, a member of the Brockville Railway Tunnel Committee, told the crowd at Wednesday's official opening of the committee's new information centre at 66 King Street West.
 
Councillor and railway committee chairman David LeSueur could not resist the obvious pun.
 
"The train is pulling out of the station," LeSueur joked, apologetically.
 
"It's time to get on board."
 
The opening of the information centre is a prelude to the launch, later this year, of the project fundraising drive's public phase.
 
There was more good news on that front Wednesday as local philanthropists David and Anne Beatty were thanked for a $300,000 donation.
 
City officials have been talking about opening the tunnel to tourists and the public for some 40 years, with the first study on the subject dating back to 1974.
 
It has been deemed Canada's oldest railway tunnel.
 
In 2013, the tunnel earned Brockville a place in the Canadian Railway Hall of Fame, which honours Canadian achievement in the railway industry.
 
The tunnel revitalization project has progressed more rapidly in recent years, with LeSueur its champion on council.
 
The project's first phase is to rehabilitate and restore the tunnel and its north portal gorge.
 
The second phase is a longer-term project that includes the development of the vacant former railway lands north of the intersection of Tunnel Avenue and Brock Street, which the city now owns.
 
That would include a tour bus and visitor parking area, a Roundhouse Visitors Centre multi-purpose building, and the acquisition of one or more antique railway cars for tour train office and historical displays.
 
Phase Two would also include improvements to Armagh S. Price Park at the south end, including new public restrooms, a tourist information and attractions ticket kiosk, and the acquisition of a railway dining car for a restaurant.
 
For now, masons are expected to begin working next month to make the walls and ceiling safe, to be followed by the installation of a concrete slab walkway and revitalization work on the north gorge, said LeSueur.
 
The aim is to complete that first phase by August 2017, in time for Canada's 150th anniversary.
 
LeSueur said the committee has invited Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to attend that opening.
 
"It's like our region's gift to Canada," said LeSueur.
 
The committee plans to do the work as funds become available.
 
The information centre, to be open Tuesday through Saturday, includes a mock-up of the tunnel's south end, complete with a train running through it, and concept art for the entire project.
 
"I think the actual project is going to be one of the biggest draws this community is going to have in terms of tourism," councillor and acting mayor Phil Deery told the crowd at the opening reception.
 
The total cost of both phases is estimated at $4 million.
 
LeSueur would not disclose where the committee is in raising those funds, noting the public phase of the fundraising will be launched at a railway-themed concert at the Brockville Arts Centre, featuring A.J. Benoit, on 4 Nov 2016.
 
The information centre, which will run until next summer, is available courtesy of the Preston family, of Preston Lawyers, whose office is above the storefront location.
 
The family donated the space.
 
"It's certainly a good part of Brockville's history that we're going to draw attention to," said lawyer Kevin Preston.
 
Ronald Zajac.