The mayor of Princeton, B.C., in the southern Interior, says the province’s decision to decommission a section of the historic Kettle Valley Railway Trail came out of nowhere.

Spencer Coyne says the decision to decommission the section of the trail, between Princeton and the Coquihalla Highway near Coldwater, would deprive the area of tourism and recreational opportunities and have significant consequences.

In a Friday statement, the Ministry of Environment and Parks said that the 67-kilometre-long section of the trail has been closed since November 2021 due to extensive flooding damage.

The province argued that repairs to the trail would have cost $60 million, while the $20 million cost of decommissioning the closed trail section would be covered by federal disaster relief funds.

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For Coyne, however, the trail decommissioning came without appropriate consultation and he argues the $20 million could have been better spent.

“There’s cultural, there’s recreational and there’s economical impact. So, you know, it’s a huge draw for tourism and that’s gone now,” he said.

Coyne says there were rail trestles — dating back to when the Kettle Valley Railway was in service — outside Princeton and Tulameen that could have been restored, as well as the White Sands campsite.

He said the decommissioning would sever a part of the Trans Canada Trail, and the province’s proposed detour now goes through a local road and is a high-traffic area.

“I don’t know how to explain [the trail’s] significance to locals,” he said. “I mean, when I was a kid, it was still railroad bed, but we used to ride our bikes to Tulameen to go swimming.

“It’s always been part of the community and it’s always been a way for us to connect with each other.”

In a statement, the non-profit Trans Canada Trail organization expressed its disappointment with the province’s decision.

It said that the permanent loss of a section of the cross-country trail without a viable alternative was “not an acceptable outcome for the [organization] or the communities that rely on it.”

“Trans Canada Trail urges the Province to announce funding to plan and develop alternative trail routing that will serve communities, while meeting provincial sustainability requirements, and preserving the continuity of the Trans Canada Trail,” the statement reads.

Decommissioning to take 2-3 years

Coalmont resident Bob Sterne, who used to manage the Mosey On Inn near the trail for over a decade, said the closure would now mean his access to fishing, hunting, dirt bikes and more recreational opportunities is much harder.

“When you sever a way to get to those various systems, so they’re not connected anymore, it means that [in] a lot of those cases you have to now have a trailer,” he said.

“The lack of consultation, of course, was just a joke,” he added. “I guess it’s, you know, easier to ask forgiveness than permission.”

The province argues in its statement said that, given the trail crossed rugged terrain, repairing and maintaining it would have been complex and costly.

“Decommissioning the Princeton section of rail trail will begin in spring 2026 and is expected to take two to three years,” the province said.

Coyne wants the province to meet with local officials and hear their ideas for what to do with the trail.

He said that before the province started managing the trail, a local non-profit used to look after the Trans Canada Trail section to Princeton.

“And we can do that again if they want to support us. But there’s never been a discussion about that, right?” he said.