About 30 members of Rail Trail Operators Inc discussed the signage issue, among other society business, at a meeting in Ranfurly yesterday.
Chairman Neville Grubb said he received information from Doc's Central Otago area manager Mike Tubbs about what the department hoped to achieve.
"Doc would like there to be some standard signage. I think they realise their initial approach without any consultation was the wrong approach to take," Mr Grubb said.
Doc, which manages the Crown-owned rail trail reserve, outraged some commercial operators by demanding advertising signs be removed by April 30.
The department did not consult business owners before making the request.
A petition from operators and rail trail users since then has collected more than 60 signatures.
Many who signed the petition said the signs were needed to provide rail trail users with information about how far it was to the next town, where food, accommodation, and other basic services would be available.
Business owners were also concerned some of their signs, which they had paid for after gaining council resource consent, would be taken down.
Doc was concerned the ad-hoc approach to signage on the trail was destroying its professional credibility as a tourist activity and was ruining the landscape's aesthetic value.
It has organised a meeting, scheduled to be held on June 10, to discuss the issue.
Representatives of the Otago Central Rail Trail Trust, Rail Trail Operators Inc, and the Central Otago District Council are expected to attend.
Mr Grubb said there was no alternative but to reach a compromise through negotiation with Doc, and asked for members' ideas on signage options.
"There are ways around putting a whole lot of signs up on the side of the trail, such as making some standard information panels which can be placed along the trail and point to individual businesses in the area. I'm sure we can end up with something far more substantial on the trail which complies with everyone's requirements," he said.
Such information panels could be placed in the existing ganger sheds or railway station sites on the trail, he said.
The society resolved to approach Doc to seek information about what form of signage would be appropriate.
Mr Grubb said Doc also wanted to know the time it would take owners to remove unwanted signs, and said there would have to be some replacement signs ready so the trail was not left information-free.
A resolution was also made to lobby community boards involved with the rail trail to see if funding could be granted for signage which served the public.
