Cairngorm Mountain’s retiring chief ‘quietly confident’ funicular will run from start of winter
The departing boss of Cairngorm Mountain is ‘quietly confident’ that the funicular railway will be up and running in time for this winter.
Susan Smith has provided an in-sight into her time at the top and what lies ahead.
The funicular - now out of operation for more than a year after initially just having ‘snagging issues’ - was high on the list of topics.
The mountain railway has just run for just seven months during Ms Smith’s time at the resort.
Prior to its return at the start of last year, it was out of action for more than four years as part of a £25m repair.
Ms Smith said: “The latest I have from our parent company is that we should expect the funicular to be handed back in late October but there are a huge amount of things that have to happen after that - not least the Health and Safety Executive being satisfied.
“Our team then has to go through a period of four to five weeks of operational readiness and re-training of the staff who work the train.
“I have not heard anything that would give me a cause for concern (on timeframe) but this is Cairngorm Mountain and every day we have to reassess but at the moment I think we can all be quietly confident that we are on track.
Asked her reaction when informed that it was more than snagging problems, Ms Smith said: “I cannot repeat that.
“The bitter irony is that we had seven months operating and we were starting to turn that corner and you could see every aspect of the business doing well…
“We have everything in the package, we just need the train to start operating. Frustration doesn’t do it.”
The mountain railway opened in December 2021.
