It may take up to a year to be approved by the federal regulators, but the thumbs up has been given by Canadian Pacific Railway for a pedestrian crossing deep in west Cochrane and its completion will be an important connection in the town's trail system.

Mayor Brooker said he got the word on Tuesday afternoon from CP government affairs director Mike LoVecchio  that the town has received approval for the project.

"We're about a week away from having a plan done for what the crossing will look like," says Brooker. "Once we get the approval on the design from CP Rail there is still a federal process we have to go through. It takes, I'm being told, between eight and 12 months, so this isn't going to happen tomorrow."

Still, the pedestrian crossing is something the town has been pursuing for the last few years, says Brooker, and the completion of a full vehicular crossing has been part of the town's 10-year financial plan for at least six years.

"We'll look at other options in the future but for now we want to get that connectivity from Heartland and Heritage Hills on to our pathway system so they can get downtown."

Money has already been set aside for the crossing so  the town can go to tender once federal approval is received.

Brooker says the town been building a good working relationship with his CP over the last few years.

"It's only in the last four months that they started to come around and I knew before we left on holidays we were getting very close and we got confirmation today that it has been approved. It's great news for the town."

What may have inadvertently helped the town's cause was the amount of controversy over that crossing this summer. Many people illegally crossed the tracks to connect with the town's trail system and the CP Police issued several warnings and some fines.

"I think our consistent pressure was compounded by the amount of people I understand were illegally crossing. They probably helped our case. CP Rail Police were making it an issue and instead of just arguing with us, they're now saying we'll grant the crossing."

Making it a vehicle crossing is a much bigger process and concerns expressed by West Pointe and West Terrace residents over traffic volumes need to be taken into consideration, says Brooker. But, he notes, an idea has been floated to see if a bus trap would be possible to make transit more efficient should it move forward.

The town has made headway with CP on pedestrian crossings in recent years and it wasn't that long ago a similar east end crossing was established. A third one has already been agreed upon in principle to cross into Historic Downtown Cochrane from Ralway St  and it's a matter of completing the design and receiving CP's approval.