ORANGEVILLE COUNCILLORS acted wisely, in our view, when they decided, sitting as directors of the town-owned Orangeville-Brampton Railway, against acting on suggestions that No Trespassing signs be erected along the short line’s right-of-way through town.

If nothing else, the decision to leave the matter to the winners of the Oct. 15 municipal elections should clear the way for legal advice to be obtained on the issue.

As we see it, posting signs only along the right-of-way through town would leave the railway wide-open to lawsuits if failure to post similar signs all the way to Streetsville led to someone being hit by a freight or the line’s tour train, the Credit Valley Explorer.

Interestingly, the line’s former owner, Canadian Pacific, never saw any need for such signage, even in the days when the tracks carried four passenger trains and many freights daily. Nor, we suspect, are the signs to be found today on any main-line railways.

The campaign for the signage was triggered during a debate over a proposal to install a hiking trail alongside the tracks. When the proposal was narrowly rejected by Council on grounds it was too risky, the signs were proposed in response to supporters of the railside trail noting that it would be far safer than the current situation, which sees many people walking along the tracks.

As for the notion that a railside trail would be too risky, we’d love to have opponents of the idea travel north to Collingwood, where just such a trail has been installed alongside a former CNR line.

In our view, any sale or lease of the former CPR line through Dufferin should leave available the option of having just such a railside trail.