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The Okanagan Rail Trail is loved by cyclists, joggers and walkers. But could it be much more and, if so, what?

A joint UBC Okanagan and City of Kelowna project plans to answer those questions over the next couple of years for the portion that runs from Okanagan Lake to Kelowna International Airport.

“We want UBCO to look at what is the life cycle of the Rail Trail?” Geoff Ritchie, senior manager of airport development for the city, told iNFOnews.ca. “What is the utilization of the Rail Trail today? How do we get the best utilization out it and what are the opportunities for the future? What are the technologies that are out there that we currently may be just becoming aware of or not aware of that UBCO might be aware of.”

City manager Doug Gilchrist told city council earlier this week that, when the city bought it, the Rail Trail corridor was seen as a transportation route, not simply a bike path.

Gilchrist’s presentation was to update council about joint efforts where UBCO and the city work together on research projects that can benefit the city but also leverage research dollars.

An agreement was signed in 2020 to create a joint team and four projects have been selected.

One is for the electrification of the transit bus fleet – which may some day include school buses – and another is to look at future uses of the rail trail.

A photo of a riderless bus next to a cyclist in Vancouver’s Olympic Village in 2019 accompanied the presentation. But Ritchie explained that doesn’t mean that’s the vision for the Rail Trail.

“We could put buses up and down there but does it work?” he asked. “Does it affect cyclists? Does it affect pedestrians? We want to make sure it’s a multi-use piece or best-used piece.”

Part of this research project is to develop a process for the two organization to work together that could serve as a model for future collaborations.

It’s also a real world exercise in finding the best use for a route that runs through Kelowna, close past the UBCO campus and right past the Airport terminal.

If there is sufficient time and resources, the project could also look at connections to the new UBCO downtown campus and the central shopping district around Orchard Park mall.

While the focus is on the Kelowna section of the trail, transportation options could stretch to Vernon and beyond, but that’s not within the scope of the current work.

That might worry some Mara Lake waterfront homeowners who have accused the Columbia Shuswap Regional District of misrepresenting its plans for a rail trail from Sicamous to Armstrong.

In November, the B.C. Dock Owners Coalition put out a news release saying the true plan for that rail trail is for a commuter train “mega-project.”

READ MORE: 'Fake news': Shuswap lobby group calls rail trail project a 'sham'

In 2018, Gord Lovegrove, an associate professor of engineering at UBCO who had finished one place out of a Kelowna city council seat, talked about his idea for an “Okanagan Valley Electric Regional Passenger Rail.”

The $1.5 billion project would run electric trains that connected with the CN Rail line near Vernon down to Osoyoos.

READ MORE: Push is on to create electric rail system in Thompson-Okanagan

One option suggested at that time was to run the train along the Rail Trail.

Ritchie said he hadn’t heard of that vision. In fact, it’s too early in the process to speculate what may or may not be the future of the Rail Trail. First there will be this research project to see what options might be worth considering.

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