Canadian Pacific Railway appears to be derailing a Town of Banff proposal to have a multi-use ring trail around the townsite.
A ring route that uses a combination of existing trails and roadside connections is currently marked on the Town of Banff’s trail map, with links to Fenland and Hoodoo trails.
However, Town officials say a more logical ring should include a trail along CPR’s right-of-way, also a recommendation of the Lands Adjacent to the Town of Banff study.
Susan Webb, the municipality’s recreation projects planner, said this route would require approval from CP without fencing, given fencing would block the existing wildlife corridor.
She said this would require negotiations at higher administrative levels.
“It’s challenging dealing with CPR,” Webb told council at its meeting June 27. “They don’t have a precedent if there’s a parallel trail without fencing.”
In 2007, CP indicated it does not endorse trails on its right-of-way, and a follow-up letter by the Town in 2008 on this and other issues received no response.
Councillor Grant Canning said it’s “really unfortunate” that the railway giant is not a little bit more willing to deal with this.
“Clearly this is an area where the policy does not match the reality,” he said.
“It’s a well used informal trail and I hope we can continue to have these negotiations with CPR to try to deal with this.”
Kevin Hrysak, a spokesman for CPR, said the Town has not formally approached them on this particular issue, noting the last formal request was about a legal at-grade crossing.
“Our main concerns are obviously safety and we don’t want to promote or encourage any type of trespassing by putting something close to the right-of-way or on our right-of-way,” he said.
“Canmore has the fencing, but we do have a heavy trespass problem there, as you can tell with, unfortunately, the fatalities in that area.”
The Town of Banff is in the midst of creating a parks and recreation master plan, which will serve as a single source of information of the parks, recreation facilities, programs and services.
Staff has summarized that the findings from previous Town of Banff studies is the first step in updating a master plan. The ring route is but one of many recommendations throughout the years.
They hope to have the master plan finalized, based on community input, in April 2012. At that point, budget estimates will be prepared for all recommendations.
Specific projects such as rebuilding tennis courts, an off-leash dog park or skate park will likely be presented to council in advance of the final master plan.
“We are looking at specific emergent needs,” said Webb. “For example, we’re looking at potential parcels for an off-leash dog park.”
