MSPs to consider funicular report

The Cairngorm Mountain Railway is the highest railway in the United Kingdom since 2001. It’s a two-kilometre long railway and the route is located in a very beautiful region, within the largest National Nature Reserve in Britain namely Cairngorms National Park. The ski area also lies within the Cairngorms National Park.
Cairngorm Mountain Railway is property from the government and it’s owned by the Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE - Scottish governments bureau for economic development)

A report on the financing of the railway is now been examined by the Scottish Parliament's public audit committee. The construction of these railway started in 1999. HIE gave £19.42m, almost £ 5m more than expected. The total costs have run to £ 26.75m. They said that these railway was necessary for the tourism in the region. For this reason the railway was approved.

Audit Scotland tells in their report that they don’t looked enough to the negative sides of this project. They had not taken into account with changes affecting skiing and operator CML. A decline of skiers was certainly one of the risks they had not taken into account. When they started the project, there were already less skiers (± 75.000 visitors per year). They said also that the project would bring such a 186.000 visitors, which is not happened. Audit Scotland say that CML has financial problems by the project. In 1997 and 1998 the company had a loss of £ 607.000 and £ 625.000.

The report made by the audit mentioned the possible costs for closing and disposing the railway. These costs are valued on £30m-£50m. What they will do isn’t sure yet.

In my opinion they should reflect first about the project, before starting it. And they should certainly examine the risks of this project which the HIE hasn’t done.

You can read the article here.