THE Cairngorm Mountain funicular railway is set to be back in action towards the end of December or early 2025, Highlands and Island Enterprise (HIE) has announced.
Balfour Beatty was appointed earlier this year to undertake remediation works on the funicular railway, with a prime focus on the hundreds of scarf joints linking beams and piers along the 1.7km viaduct.
The contractor has now confirmed that, weather permitting, its current programme of remediation works on the viaduct that supports the railway is due to finish in the next week to 10 days – after which teams working for the company plan to demobilise from the mountainside.
The focus will then shift to a series of important follow-up actions that are required to be carried out before the funicular can carry passengers again. These include mechanical safety inspections and testing, trial runs, and staff training.
HIE said this means that the funicular railway will not be back in service for the official launch of Cairngorm Mountain’s 2024/25 winter season, Friday 20 December, as had been hoped – however, added that the wait to return will ‘soon be over’.
The funicular was initially closed over safety concerns in October 2018, but came back into service in January 2023. In August of that year, however, the service was again stopped after several scarf joints were found to be below the specified tension. The latest remedial works began in April 2024.
Re-tensioning the joints – and ensuring that tension is maintained – has been a core element of the remediation programme, with tension in beams and diaphragms that are essential for load distribution also being carefully examined and adjusted as required, and associated grouting has been carried out on the piers.
HIE said, “Return to service will mark the end of a difficult few years for HIE and its subsidiary Cairngorm Mountain (Scotland) Ltd, which operates the resort.”
