The Cairngorms Campaign was one of a number of independent charities that sought between 1996 and 2001 to draw public attention to environmental, economic and public funding questions surrounding this construction which aims to carry large numbers of visitors, close to the top of Cairn Gorm, one of Britain's highest mountains.
The highly controversial Cairngorm Funicular Railway eventually started running just before Christmas 2001 after years of battling over its viability, sustainability and environmental impact. Its failure to attract any venture capital or outside commercial investment brought into sharp focus how much return it will afford for the £15 million it cost the taxpayer. Its viability remains contentious as the details of the annual payments being made by the operators to public agency Highlands & Islands Enterprise are still secret.
The original ski area operators Cairngorm Chairlift Company changed their name to Cairngorm Mountain when the train started running. Much of the case offered in support of the development rested on the benefits to the local economy. Claims were repeatedly made by the Company and HIE that the railway and or skiing on Cairn Gorm 'underpins' over 2000 jobs in the area but the actual employment directly arising from the development has been a fraction of that. No serious financial or economic evidence has ever been produced to prove that the 2000 'underpinned' jobs would be lost if the development did not proceed.
The storm of debate surrounding the high mountain development sparked from not only its financial sustainability, but also its environmental sustainability due to the likely impact on some of the highest mountain landscapes in the UK. Past experience had demonstrated that providing ease of public access to highly sensitive montane surfaces via mechanical uplift leads to marked degradation of plants and wildlife. In the case of the Cairngorm plateau, which is immediately adjacent to the top station of the railway, that landscape is so important it is recognised as a European Union Special Area of Conservation and Special Protection Area.
In order to make the railway viable, Cairngorm Chairlift Company claimed that 165,000 users were needed, a vast increase on the numbers recently using the chairlift which the funicular was designed to replace. Proposals drawn up by conservation bodies for a more sustainable, yet still viable, alternative attraction, further down the mountain, which would not have made it so easy for crowds of visitors to reach the plateau, were dismissed by both HIE and CCC. Instead, the developers, Cairngorm Chairlift Company, wanted a development that would out compete other ski areas and visitor attractions.
They thus came up with a bizarre solution in response to the inevitable problem that they would create by carrying large numbers to the edge of such a sensitive place, adding to the public controversy. They proposed that a closed system be created and in summer when skiing was not taking place, that funicular passengers should not be allowed out from the top station, to enjoy the high mountain conditions that remained available to those who walked up all the way on foot. Even then those who have walked all the way up the hill are not allowed to enter the building and travel down. That closed system was confirmed as part of a management agreement drawn up along with Scottish Natural Heritage, as a condition of planning permission.
Apart from the debate over public funding, one of the most significant factors that drew widespread opposition was the failure of successive Ministers to order a public inquiry in response to the planning application. A court case took place to examine the legal procedural steps but not the planning issues in relation to how economic benefits balanced up against landscape impacts. Over 10,000 written representations were made to the Scottish Office opposing the development and seeking a better alternative, - mostly people sending a Cairngorms Campaign designed postcard. This was thought to have been one of the biggest mailings the Scottish Office ever received on an environmental issue. Yet Ministers allowed the scheme to proceed. Brian Wilson MP, then a minister in the Scottish Office, stated prior to the establishment of the Scottish Parliament that he fully expected that the matter would be the subject of 'a full and frank debate within the new Parliament'. It never was. A further broken Ministerial promise related to the public funding which it was assured would not exceed £9.7 million.
Since then, despite those government promises that no more public money would be spent on the funicular, public agency HIE announced on 22 August 2001 that they would be making an additional contribution of £3.5 million for the purchase of "associated buildings." This means that the funicular construction has now been wholly-financed by public money and Cairngorm Mountain Ltd will simply be leasing and operating the funicular. It thus remains to be seen following the initial flurry of interest whether still further public money is required to keep the funicular operating or it pays its way by the end of the twenty five year period the European Union as co-funders require it to operate for. Further queries will also continue over whether the management measures designed to protect the landscape are maintained in the face of financial pressures partly caused by user frustration at not being allowed out of the building. Local key political figures had already called for their relaxation, even before the train first left the station.