Cairngorm funicular: Delays hit reopening plans

Repairs to the UK's highest railway have been hit by fresh problems.

The Cairngorm funicular has been closed since September 2018 due to structural problems.

The Scottish government has provided £16m towards the cost of fixing the railway, owned by public body Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE).

HIE had hoped the funicular would be available early next year, but it said Covid, a shortage of materials and blizzards had caused delays.

It said the planned timescale had now been pushed to the second half of 2022.

Repairs to the railway near Aviemore started in April this year.

HIE said "extra effort" had been required to source vital construction materials that were currently in short supply across the UK.

The funicular connects a base station with a restaurant and a ski area 1,097m (3,599ft) up Cairn Gorm mountain near Aviemore.

HIE, which also owns the ski centre, secured planning permission for the repairs from the Cairngorm National Park Authority earlier this year and Scottish government funding last month.

The centre remains open, and HIE said it would open as planned for snowsports this coming winter.

HIE interim chief executive Carroll Buxton said: "The original schedule was very ambitious, even without the impacts of the pandemic lasting as long as they have and before the more recent problems in sourcing construction materials of suitable quality.

"With limited time available to complete these works before winter, postponement has become inevitable."

Mountaineer and author Cameron McNeish, who opposed the plans for the funicular before it was opened in 2001, said the railway should be "stripped" from the mountainside and the area allowed to go back to the wild.

He said: "For the best part of 40 years Cairngorm has come to represent all that is wrong with environmental practice."