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Drumheller Strikes a Deal With CN for Trail Development

Posted on Apr. 4 2022
CN Trail from Midland to Wayne
CN Trail from Midland to Wayne

At the April 4 Regular Council Meeting, CAO Darryl Drohomerski presented an update regarding the CN Trail Project. “We’ve been successful in securing a twenty-five-year lease with CN for the use of the right-of-way from Midland, Newcastle, Downtown, Rosedale and Wayne to convert it into an active transportation trail system,” Drohomerski announced. “The cost of the twenty-five-year lease is one dollar per year.”

CN removed the rail in 2014, and the then-present Mayor and Council had initiated conversations with CN to convert the railbeds into active transportation trails. At the time, CN was not in the position to lease the land for this purpose, however, the Town has since been able to negotiate an agreement earlier this month.

“Residents have wanted this for a long time,” begins Mayor Heather Colberg. “We are so excited to finally see this much-anticipated development come to life. Thank you for the work that past and present Council and Administration have done to get us to this point, and of course, a huge thank you to CN for working with us to offer this new trail system to our community!”

Drohomerski also noted “Developed areas of the trail will be comprised of recycled asphalt millings, similar to some sections of the Badlands River Parks trail system. This surface is considered an all-weather surface and can support mobility equipment. There will be accessibility points (ramps) to access the trail, mostly in the downtown developments.”

At the request of Councilor Tom Zariski, the first area scheduled to be developed is connecting Downtown Drumheller to the lights at 19 Street East near Walmart, to provide much-needed pedestrian access to this area.

To learn more about this exciting opportunity, a comprehensive ‘Frequently Asked Questions’ document is available on Drumheller.ca.

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Comments

Kjelli Solberg

Hello and congrats on securing this property for trail purposes. Just wondering when the Town will be removing any old garbage from the banks of the tracks? There is a great amount of very old rusty metal and fencing, car parts etc between the tracks and our property line, close to the water treatment creek and adjacent to our property line. Assuming it will be cleaned up ahead of paving for this stretch. Thanks so kindly, K. Solberg

Town of Drumheller Communications

Hi Kjelli, Thank you for your comment! The clean-up of the trails is the responsibility of the Town of Drumheller, however, we have many incredible volunteers who have already contributed to making this trail beautiful by picking up litter on their walks along the CN rail bed. In order to accurately address the area you've mentioned, we suggest submitting a work order/report to our "Report a Problem" page https://www.drumheller.ca/live/town-services/report-a-problem. This allows for you to have two-way conversations with our teams that are directly responsible for the work order! You can submit the address of concern to help our teams take the guesswork out of the location, making for a more efficient work order process! Alternatively, you can contact Public Works directly at 403-823-1330 or email info@drumheller.ca to discuss your concern. Thanks again for your comment and bringing this to our attention!

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