Rail Trail

Footpath with deviations

Much of the cycleway is shared footpath adjacent to the road. In most cases the path is 2.4 metres wide. As can be seen the path deviates around electricity poles which are placed on the road side. Several poles can be seen in the photo. At some sections the corridor is not wide enough to allow for deviations and the path is narrowed considerably when these intrusions occur.

The rail easement can be clearly seen on the left of the fence. At this point the easement is wide, flat and grassed and just waiting for a Rail Trail.

Even if the cycle route was not on the rail easement it is not clear why the deviations are required as they would have been more expensive than running a straight path. There must have been some reason why the path could not have followed straight along the fence line, although we couldn't work it out. In colour coding this panel we would have used a grade of "silly" if it was available to us.