It is more than apparent that HIE will never allow the dysfunctional monstrosity of a funicular, so abhorred by snow sports enthusiasts and environmentalists, to be dismantled, especially after the huge repair bill funded by the Scottish Government, unless something goes so catastrophically wrong that they have no choice.

But there is another option, just keep part of it!

Looking at all the repairs being done the greatest expense is obviously from the Shieling to the tunnel ([see the webcam image above).  This is likely to be two, three or four times the cost for the lower half (see webcam image below). We won’t know the exact answer until the repairs are finished and the final bill tallied up.

When the repairs were being costed, HIE should have known this and yet couldn’t or wouldn’t explore a viable alternative. The solution was actually quite simple and most importantly far more affordable. Remove the uphill section of the funicular from the Shieling, Anchor Block 48 shown below:

Then build a new passing loop between the base station and the Shieling and replace the top half with a chair /gondola hybrid from the Shieling to the Ptarmigan.

What this would do is enable snowsports to be concentrated on the upper half of the mountain, as I proposed in my last post (see here), while retaining a means of access from the car park to the bottom of the area with the most reliable snow.

There would be at least two options for removing the upper part of the funicular:-

(1) Use the bogies to remove the rails, plinths, etc. from the top downwards to a point where a crane can be used to lift them away for re-cycling, or,

(2) Reinstall the cableways used to build the track in 1999/2001. The anchor points are still there according to Morrison’s Health and Safety file:

These anchor points could be tested for strength as they have been lying unused for 20+years and if suitable then this would NOT require a totally new cableway as suggested in the 2019 BAM/COWI report into dismantling the funicular railway (see here). These same cableways would be used to build the new uplift.

HIE have always claimed that the cost of demolition was more expensive than re-instatement of funicular, conveniently forgetting to mention that at some time in the future it will have to be removed. How they came to that conclusion with the high end demolition costs being in the region of £13m (see screenshot below) and the repair bill now heading towards £30m is anyone’s guess?

In both the screenshot above and the one below mention is made of an aerial cableway. While the cost of the cableway option was acceptable for the demolition of the funicular it was considered to be too expensive for the repairs! If the helicopter option was the cheaper of the two then why was that not used to cost the demolition? The obvious answer, that would have brought down the cost of demolition, which would not have suited HIE’s agenda to repair the funicular at any cost.

How were those estimates so far off the actual figure, which are already well above that but the final amounts will not be known for several years?   Maybe HIE should have taken more notice of Morrison’s Health and Safety file.

The costs of this alternative option

(1) Follow the plans shown in my previous post.

(2) Remove the upper part of the funicular, cost at a very rough guess half of £13m = £6.5m.

(3) Replace the upper half of the funicular with a chair/ gondola hybrid. The quote from Doppelmayr in 2019, and carried forward to 2020, for a chairlift from the car park to the Shieling was approx. £6m, so about the same price from the Shieling to the Ptarmigan? Add those two figures together and you get £12.5m, far less than the current estimates for the repaired funicular.

This plan would effectively double the hourly capacity of the funicular, which a chair/ gondola hybrid could easily handle for people wanting to go to the Ptarmigan, and possibly have been in operation two years ago.

But then, what do I know? After all I’m just a mechanic whereas HIE are the experts! With a little bit of thought and effort Cairn Gorm could and should become the great ski resort it used to be.

“Where it will all end, who can guess? I have seen the coming of all the lifts and ski facilities in the U.K, in particular in Scotland, and am proud to have been a part of what it is today. I really hope to see Scotland’s first mountain railway. If I see that, I will witness the start of the rebuilding of Cairngorm. That is one of my “Wee Dreams”.

Yours Aye in skiing,

Frith Finlayson

Aviemore, Scotland. 9.30 pm. 3^rd May 1995.”

The quote is from someone who didn’t consider himself as a pioneer in skiing, but along with so many no longer with us, he certainly was. My thanks to his grandson Craig Frith Finlayson for permission to use it.  Well Frith, all I can say is, with no disrespect, how wrong you were! Your “Wee Dream” has turned into an absolute nightmare for snow sport enthusiasts! Not what you expected or wanted.

In any customer based business the way forward is to listen to what your customers want and then provide this in the best way you can. From 347,000 skier days in 1986 to the 30,000 forecast now, reduced parking facilities, a reduced ski area and reduced poor quality uplift? That is never going to be successful.Are HIE deliberately trying to close the Cairn Gorm ski area? It certainly looks that way to me.