By the end of next summer, all of the Spur Line Trail that runs between Kitchener and Waterloo will be lit, but it will be years before the same lighting comes to the Iron Horse Trail.

That's due in part to funding. Metrolinx, the provincial transit agency, has an agreement with the Region of Waterloo contribute to the cost of building and lighting the Spur Line Trail, which runs alongside an active railway track.

Thanks to that funding, most of the trail is built and lit, except for a section between Roger Street and Moore Avenue South in Kitchener, which is considered closed. Part of that trail currently runs through the parking lot of the Lens Mill store just off of Moore Ave.

"We wanted to maximize the contribution from Metrolinx towards the trail, so we decided to build that section of the trail even though theoretically it is closed," said Peter Linn, senior project manger in the transportation and environmental services department with the Region of Waterloo.

Trail runs through parking lot

Lens Mill leases the parking lot land from the Region of Waterloo, and pays an annual fee. The region and Lens Mill have been in discussions about moving the parking, and the store recently closed a deal to buy an abutting property to move their parking lot.

In December, the region will officially notify Lens Mill the lease is ending. The store has a six-month window before the region will take over the land again, and then construction will begin, which will last six to eight weeks.

"Basically all the asphalt between the railway tracks and the Lens Mill building will be removed," Linn said. "[We'll] build the trail to the same width as the rest of the trail, extend the lighting and put in landscaping between the trail and the Lens Mill building just to try to make it look a little bit more inviting and try to naturalize it a little bit."

A wintry April day on the Iron Horse Trail in Kitchener. (Sean_Marshall/Flickr) Wiring and foundations for the light standards are in place for the lights along that section of trail. The current estimate to install those lights and redo that section trail is $250,000.

Iron Horse Trail lighting

As for the Iron Horse Trail, 4.4 of the trail's 5.5 kilometres of trail are in Kitchener. And while the the city does plan to light the trail eventually, there are other improvements that will come first to the trail's central section between Victoria Street South and Queen Street South.

Josh Joseph, the city's community engagement consultant, said 90 per cent of people surveyed support lighting the trail. Joseph previously worked as the city's trail manager.

"I think the desire is to address ... the other improvements first, especially the ones that are really critical for people that they talked about, which was the trail road crossings and etiquette on the trail and trail width. And then in the longer term, look at that lighting issue as an improvement," Joseph said.

The city plans to widen the Iron Horse trail from 2.4 metres to three metres, and included a mowed buffer area on both sides of the trail, as well as rest areas with benches. Other plans include removable bollards, or posts, at the trail roadway crossings instead of gates, improvements to the Henry Strum Greenway Open Space area, and changes to Victoria Park parking lot to make it easier to access the trail.

Long-term goal

Joseph said council approved lighting as a long-term goal because of the capital cost. The current estimates put the cost of lighting the trail at $1.5 million.

"We did hire a consultant to do a detailed lighting design for us, so we have that information and you know, it could just be a matter of going in after the fact and adding lighting once we're ready to ... do that," Joseph said.

The improvements to the central section of the trail are budgeted at $750,000

"There's broad support for lighting, it makes sense, council approved the strategy with lighting in it as a recommendation but it's sort of a longer time kind of thing, because we want to focus on the main comments that we heard from people which were on some of those other physical improvements," Joseph said.

Right now the city is asking for public input on what they'd like to see on the trail at EngageKitchener.ca up to Nov. 30. Those improvements will happen in 2017.