Campaigners frozen out from information on funicular over ‘risk of terrorist attack’
Department for Transport knocks back request for details
CAMPAIGNERS have ridiculed UK Department for Transport officials after they claimed they could not release information about Cairngorm Mountain Railway’s ill-fated funicular because of the risk of a terrorist attack.
Local resident Gordon Bulloch, who made the Freedom of Information (FOI) request, said he was amazed by the response.
“It’s a very strange excuse to come up with,” he said. “I think I could have come up with a better one myself.”
The response was to a request for information on the safety of the funicular at Cairngorm which has been closed since August because of “snagging” issues.
The Department for Transport (DfT) said: “The information contained within the operational safety reports, analyses and technical files that are being withheld and/or redacted would provide any potential hostile actors with detailed information on the safety critical systems and how potential safety risks can be addressed and mitigated, thus increasing the risk of attack.
“While the possibility of a terrorist attack being aided by the release of the information may be relatively low, we should not completely dismiss the scenario.
“We recognise that terrorists can be highly motivated and may go to great lengths to gather intelligence.
“This means there are grounds for withholding seemingly harmless information on the basis that it may assist terrorists when pieced together with other information they may obtain.”
Bulloch said the response was “odd”.
“If a terrorist wanted to take out the funicular, they could just put something under one of the pillars and blow it up or cut the drive cables – you don’t need the technical details behind it to scupper it,” he said.
The DfT is the regulatory authority for the controversial two-kilometre railway which cost £19 million to build and has so far cost £25m to repair. First opened in 2001, the railway closed in October 2018 due to structural issues, reopened last January then shut down again in August for more repairs.
Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE), which owns the funicular, has said it will be “months” rather than weeks before the facility reopens.
Now there are concerns that if it does reopen, it will not last long as campaigners believe it is not fit for purpose.
“What they are doing is a stickingplaster job,” said Bulloch. “It is not going to solve the problem because whatever has caused stress to the concrete supports over the years will continue to do so and they will have to apply more sticking plaster.”
He has been trying to find out the full extent of the faults that led to the recent closure, what work has been carried out since August and whether the DfT will oversee any decision to re-open the funicular. He also wants to know what role the Health and Safety Executive has played in the saga.
“We want to understand because we honestly believe that even though a hell of an amount of money has gone into the funicular, there is no guarantee that it will ever be right again,” he said.
“Having been in business and run large factories in the past and dealt with major repairs, I know you have got to really check you are going to get your money’s worth and the repairs will work.”
Bulloch has put another FOI into Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) to find out more.
“HIE did manage to claw back £11m less legal costs from the original developers but this doesn’t even cover half the recent £25m repair bill which could have been better spent elsewhere in the region,” he said.
“That £25m is a huge part of their budget and the rest of the Highlands and Islands are being robbed because of the money being spent on the funicular.”
He said HIE should have cut its losses in 2018 and found a cheaper replacement for the railway such as a gondola lift instead of trying to repair it.
“There’s a lot of nonsense about the funicular being a key driver of the Aviemore and Strathspey economy but I was involved in the tourist industry for many years and it is just not true. We’ve all that money going into Cairngorm and there is no return coming from it.”
An HIE spokesperson said: “Everything possible is being done to complete the works and return the funicular to service as quickly as possible. We’re sorry that we can’t say for certain when that will be, but we’ll continue to provide updates as soon as there is any news.”
The DfT was approached for comment.