KITCHENER — Scores of people came out Wednesday to hear about the latest plans for the popular Iron Horse Trail, and to offer their own ideas about how to make it even better.

"It's one of the best features of the city," said Roger Snuffling. "It's the 401 of trails, it's so well used."

His wife Petra Suffling uses the trail "constantly. Whenever there's no snow or ice, that's my main way of getting around town."

But she's worried that the widening cleared out shrubs and natural vegetation.

The section of the trail near Gage Street used to be lined with cattails.

"You could hear frogs. You could see red-winged blackbirds. They have completely obliterated that. I don't want to see that sort of thing happening."

Joan Jacobson's home backs onto the trail, and she says she and her neighbours have lost privacy as shrubs have been cleared.

The 24-hour lighting has also made it more unpleasant for residents. "Now that they've widened the trail, from my patio I can tell what colour socks you're wearing. That's how visible it is."

She's not thrilled with how popular the trail has become. "It's loud. There's lots of people, 24/7. It's lit up so it draws more people."

The city says lighting is a priority, since the trail is heavily used for morning and evening commutes. Surveys in 2015 showed 91 per cent of trail users supported lighting the trail.

Tim Osland regularly commutes on the trail from his home in Waterloo to his Kitchener workplace. He believes the changes will make the Iron Horse "the gold standard for trails in the region. Three or four more of these, on major connections north, south, east and west, will make a big difference to have more people commute by walking and bicycling."

In 2018, Kitchener spent $1.7 million to install lights and put in new benches, widen and repave the trail between Glasgow and David streets.

In 2019, the rest of the trail — up to the Waterloo border and down to Ottawa Street — will be paved and widened.

Pending council approval, those sections will also be lit, and an old wooden rail trestle replaced with a steel bridge.

David Ziegler commutes to work every day on the trail. He loves it, but would like to see safer road crossings. Built on an old rail bed, the trail often crosses busy streets midblock. Victoria "is a really dangerous crossing," Ziegler said. "The number of close calls you see."

The plan is to improve those crossings, said Tim McCormick of Stantec. Whether it happens this year depends on budgets, he said, but eventually all major road crossings will be made safer with islands and other features.

Like many of those who came to the meeting, Ziegler believes the trail work will get more people out of their cars. "It's a complete success," Ziegler said. "Let's have more of it."

Work is slated to begin in May on the southern section while the work on the north section will happen in late fall.

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More information is available on the city's website at kitchener.ca/ironhorsetrail.

cthompson@therecord.com

Twitter: @ThompsonRecord