Feel this is worthy of it's own thread though was also posted in the 'non conditions' discussion last night.

Just under 2 months short of 5 years since the Funicular was shutdown in 2018, and a staggering 25 million quid later after only 7 months of operation, with immediate effect on Friday afternoon the CairnGorm Funicular is once again out of service and closed to the public.

There are various press reports now available:

[www.bbc.co.uk] .

[www.strathspey-herald.co.uk] .

[www.pressandjournal.co.uk] .

HIE told the Strathy:


However, does a company really shut down it's principle attraction for routine snagging work on the Friday afternoon at the start of the biggest summer bank holiday weekend?




Edited 3 times. Last edit at 18.22hrs Tue 10 Oct 23 by winterhighland.

Note that while funicular tickets were on sale from Sat 2nd September at the start of the week, this has been pushed back to Sat 9th September.

Is this going to be a weekly thing?

Well this morning CML have pushed the funicular ticket availability back to Sat 16th September.

So that is the earliest funicular tickets can be bought pushed back another week to Saturday 23rd September.

No further info on the CGM website, radio silence from HIE including to the press which have been asking questions - further info was promised by the end of last week but never materialised.

After some press fanfare earlier in the week that the funicular was reopening this month, the 23rd Sept date has been pushed back another 8 days to 1st October.

Time for the media to start asking serious questions of HIE instead of regurgitating press releases.

£25 million for some scaffy batons and some threaded rod, brilliant value for
money there. We now have the ski uplift equivalent of a gawky teenagers smile
after getting their first set of braces installed by the dentist.

So that's a surprise, not! So instead of the weekley date push back we were getting, they've held tickets on sale date as 1st October till 5 days out then pushed it back to 16th October.

That means not only has the funicular missed the peak holiday weekend of the summer, it will now miss a fair chunk of the October holiday period too. But it's just routine snagging.

I’ve been hearing suggestions that the Funicular Railway is now closed indefinitely! However yesterday afternoon tickets were still on sale from 16th October, but this morning all funicular tickets have been removed from sale going forward.

Further to the above post, tickets for shorter opening hours returned to sale from 16th October. However, the website now has the following alert message:



Previously there were off-peak discounted tickets for before 11am and after 3pm, but these are not on sale. Given the message at the top of the website it suggests tickets might be on sale due to an administrative error?

HIE now confirmed that the Funicular works will continue into November. Normal annual maintenance has still to take place as well (though it remains to be seen whether that is a material consideration going forward).

Having repeatedly been pushed back, we have gone from reopening in a few days, to a couple of weeks, to a few weeks, to a couple of months, to a few months...

The state of play with regards snowsports season passes is that CML are not participating in any of the Ski Scotland agreements. That is the former All Area Pass which is available this season as a 4 area pass excluding CairnGorm and the inter area season pass agreement which previously gave a 30% off full rack rate day ticket price.

The 30% off day tickets for other area pass holders will be available between Glenshee, Glencoe, Nevis Range and the Lecht. CairnGorm pass holders will not get a discount at the other 4 areas and pass holders from the other 4 areas will not get a discount at CairnGorm.

Interesting article at parkswatchscotland

[parkswatchscotland.co.uk]

So now a message that if there is snow, regardless of the Funicular surface lifts will operate and season passes could be on sale around the end of November.



It reads that, firstly the Funicular will definitely not operate this month, secondly that it probably won’t run this season.

Remember this closure was announced as a brief closure for routine snagging, with tickets available for a few days ahead. But the fact the closure was announced at 3pm on the Friday of the busiest summer bank holiday weekend highlighted HIEs gas lighting.

There’s been a flurry (pun intended) of press releases from CML about early snow and the snow gates having to close because of the severity of the drifting. Accompanied by a photo of a dusting on the upper ski road. The HIE gas lighting in full swing to prepare for the extreme weather excuse for not being able to fix the funicular.

The current viaduct is not fixable, it has no long term future. HIE has squandered £25.6m at time of reopening in Jan on the funicular since 2018. That doesn’t include the £1.2m spent on snow making, or the cheque written to CML every month so the staff get paid regardless of whether any coin goes in the till.

HIE smashed up the Ciste Chairs so they could present fixing the funicular as a fait accompli. The money spent could have fixed the Ciste Chairs, refurbished the base building and paid for 2 new chairs in Coire Cas. The Ciste Chairs would have allowed the company to have traded more effectively when the funicular closed until permanent new lifts could be commissioned.

It is now imperative that CML is removed from HIE as a matter of urgency, either returned to the CairnGorm Recreation Trust or to the AGCT. The estate should in the short term move to Forest and Land Scotland, while HIE retains all liabilities associated with the Funicular.

As soon as reasonably practical, HIE should be wound down and abolished.

Ironic that the biggest clown in Scottish skiing is throwing clownfaces around on social media when his bullshit gets called out for what it is. The person doing the actual gas lighting is YOU of course there will be a reopening date for the funicular.

People need to understand just how complicated and big a structure the funicular is.

This orchestrating of pile ons against Cairngorm and Nevis Range staff have to stop. Both our staff are entitled to go about their work without fear of intimidation, threats of violence or persistent online bullying.

Andy at Glencoe needs to really explain himself here as to why Glencoe thinks it acceptable to enable odious pieces of work like Alan and Mark 'Back Corries' to carry on their campaigns of intimidation and bullying against the hard working dedicated staff at Cairngorm and Nevis Range.

Maybe we should start a blog Glencoe Watch?

Similar was said when we pointed out that you don't close for routine snagging at 3pm on the Friday of the busiest bank holiday weekend outside the festive period!

So much for it reopening in a few days and before the start of September!

As for the rest of your post.

Not sure why you're having a go at the people who are pointing out that the Emperor appears not to be wearing any clothes.

Also not sure why you're creating straw men arguments. It's disingenuous of you to suggest that criticism of the decision makers at the resorts is criticism of the people who are employed there day-to-day.

Why don't you try tackling the actual criticisms or comments made and show us why they're not correct