The public agency which now runs the Cairngorm funicular railway has proposed that parking charges be introduced at the car park at the funicular to help fund running costs. Approximately half the people using the car park actually go on the funicular, the others being walkers, climbers and skiers.
The Scottish Parliament is due to release a report into the funding and running of the Cairngorms funicular railway today. Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) had to step in when the railway floundered under massive financial problems and has spent £19.42m in total towards the cost of building and running it. The development agency plans to spend a further £4m over the next 3 or 4 years to maintain the funicular.
HIE said the investment would bring the site up to a standard that would attract a new operator from the private sector. It has also proposed introducing charges at a car park serving the railway. This would affect walkers using the Coire Cas car park as the starting point for a number of walks, as well as summer users of the funicular and skiers. HIE said that about 400,000 people used the car park last year. Half of those visitors used the funicular.
The agency took the railway and CairnGorm Mountain ski resort over in May 2008. It followed agreements reached with Bank of Scotland Corporate and CairnGorm Mountain Trust on large debts owed by CairnGorm Mountain Limited (CML).
Highland Council also agreed to write off a £1m loan to CML. The Scottish Parliament’s audit committee reviewed the financing of the funicular following an investigation by spending watchdog Audit Scotland.
Explosions of a different kind were heard on Cairngorm yesterday as controlled blasts were used to remove a massive build up of snow from above the ski slopes where it posed an avalanche risk.