Port aux Basques named national trail's gateway to province

By the end of the year, six more trestles will likely be replaced along the southwest coast section of the T'Railway.

That's according to Terry Morrison, executive director of the Newfoundland T'Railway Council.

He and several other special guests were in Port aux Basques on Wednesday to mark the town's designation as an inter-provincial gateway on the Trans Canada Trail.

At a small ceremony, new information panels were unveiled that welcome trail users to Newfoundland and provide information about the T'Railway Provincial Park, which is the Newfoundland portion of the Trans Canada Trail.

The panels are located at the start of the T'Railway, at the site of the Port aux Basques Railway Heritage Museum.

Mr. Morrison said the area around the panels, near the Grand Bay Trestle, will be landscaped and made into a type of picnic or rest area in the coming months.

The trail heads, like the one officially unveiled in Port aux Basques last week, mark the start of different sections of the trail and provide users with information about local history, environment and more.

Tim Hoskin, a national director with the Trans Canada Trail Foundation, said Canadians have always felt connecting different parts of the country was important, such as with the national railway.

"With the trail we have the opportunity to do that again in a healthy way," he added.

T'Railway upgrades

Work is currently ongoing on the T'Railway in the Gaff Topsails region, said Mr. Morrison. Eight trestles between Port aux Basques and Stephenville are set to be replaced.

Mr. Morrison explained that work on several of those structures can only proceed at certain times of the year as they span salmon rivers. He hopes that six of the trestles will be complete before year's end.

Almost 70 per cent of the Trans Canada Trail is now developed. The trail is a 21,500-kilometre recreational trail that goes through every province and territory, from the Atlantic to Pacific to Arctic Oceans. When completed, it will be the world's longest recreational trail, linking close to 1,000 communities

The goal is to have the trail complete by its 25th anniversary in 2017.

Mr. Morrison said he hopes to have the Newfoundland portion finished before then. He added the trail was continuous across the province in 1994 but deteriorated somewhat since then.

Use of the trail by residents and visitors has continued and increased in recent years as efforts to bring the 883-kiloometre trail and its many trestles back to good condition have been ongoing.

"We're looking forward to the next few years when we can declare the trail open and ready to market," said Mr. Morrison. "We're here to make sure the T'Railway continues to exist."

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