Railside trail plans raise concerns

Photo/DAN PELTON ORANGEVILLE TRAILWAYS Committee chair Bernadette Hardaker, right, and local resident Chris McCoy discuss ways to deal with safety issues pertaining to a proposed stretch of trail that will run beside the town’s railway tracks. Accounting for just 1.2 kilometres of a planned 15-kilometre loop of trails in Orangeville, a planned segment alongside townowned railway tracks is proving to be the most controversial.

The segment in question is a planned 2.5- metre-wide paved trail from Town Line to Broadway, with the first phase going through Kay Cee Gardens, beside the Orangeville Seniors Centre and ending up at Centre Street.

A well-attended meeting of the Orangeville Trailway Committee at Town Hall last Thursday heard complaints about potential dangers due to the trail being too close to the tracks, and worries that it would attract an unsavoury element at night.

Despite the list of complaints and concerns voiced at the meeting, committee chair Bernadatte Hardaker left the meeting in an enthusiastic frame of mind. “I’m very happy,” she said. “I think we turned the corner on a lot of fronts.”

Local resident Chris McCoy, who has voiced her concerns over the proximity of trail and rail on several occasions, left the meeting with a comment that “the committee is taking our concerns to heart.”

Ms. McCoy’s concerns were partly spurred by the fact she has two children enrolled at nearby Princess Margaret Public School and the memory of losing her father to a rail accident when she was 10 years old.

She said that, once the railside trail is established, “kids walking to school on their own could be in very precarious situation,” because they are too close to the rail. “I know there are kids using the tracks, now. But if they are seen, parents can tell them to get off and report them.

“If the police see somebody on the tracks, they have some recourse. Once the trail is in, they won’t.”

Her point was, more or less, echoed by Church Street resident Shannon McGrady at Thursday night’s meeting. Ms. McGrady feared the privacy of nearby residents could be compromised and added the section of trail by the tracks could become a gathering place for vandals and rowdy party kids.

“The trail might be beautiful during the day,” she said, “but what about at night?”

Ms. Hardaker countered that the opposite could well be true because “once a new trail is in, it will be used and there will be more eyes on it,” making the rail track area a less-appealing place for young people to party.

There were also residents on hand who supported the project. “I hate to disagree with my neighbours,” said Greg Jones of Margaret Street, “but I say let’s build the damn thing and get it over with.”

But concerns were also raised about the railway through town – currently accommodating 15 cars per week which are allowed to travel no faster than 10 miles an hour – becoming much busier, and the trains faster, if it is sold to the Highland Railway Group.

Orangeville planning director James Stiver explained that the train speed when passing through Orangeville is determined by the layout of the tracks and shouldn’t allow for trains to move at higher speeds.

“Just because longer trains may be coming,” he added, “doesn’t mean they will be faster.”

Ms. Hardaker said she had spoken to trails people in Kitchener-Waterloo, where trails also run adjacent to rail tracks where, she pointed out, trains are more numerous and faster. She said she was told “The RWT (rails with trails) goes through the busiest part of the city. They have been there for 20 years and there’s never been a report of an accident on that trail.”

Literature handed out at Thursday’s meeting said the setback, (from the centre of the track to the edge of the proposed protective fence) would be a minimum of three metres, with a goal to extend the setback to five metres where possible.

Ms. McCoy, on the other hand, said in an interview that she would ideally like to see no trail beside the tracks between Town Line and Church Street and the rest, between Church and John, have a 12-foot, chainlink fence with barbed wire and lighting.

Ms. Hardaker said that the committee had received $220,000 in grant money that could only be utilized if the project remained as is.

She added that finding other routes would likely involve buying private property and adding to the length of the trails, which would be extremely difficult and the cost prohibitive.