A former oil and gas project leader says he made a “cynical” job application to oversee Cairngorm railway repairs, only to tell bosses their approach was completely wrong.
Ian Joy, 66, from Aberdeen, bagged an interview for the role after the funicular was taken out of service in 2018.
The train remained shut for nearly five years while budget-busting repairs were carried out at a cost of £25 million.
It was only reopened for seven months before being shut again in August 2023 for further works, and has remained out of commission since.
The closures led to growing calls for the funicular to be removed for good as pressure builds on Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE), the agency responsible.
Mr Joy, who believes the funicular has been a “shambolic disaster”, put in a “cynical application” when he saw HIE advertising for a project lead.
The job involved overseeing construction work subcontracted to Balfour Beatty.
Engineering consultancy firm COWI UK was drafted in beforehand to investigate what needed fixed.
Mr Joy criticised HIE’s decision to bring in different organisations for the repairs, especially when it was managing the project.
‘Recipe for disaster’
“The problem with their approach was their plan was to use different independent parties,” he says.
“Fundamentally that was a recipe for disaster. There was no single point of accountability.
“My approach would be rip up the contracts, throw them in the bin, and start again.
“I’m not sure that would have been allowed.”
Mr Joy says two of the HIE staff interviewing him were “horrified”.
“I don’t think I even got a formal response saying I hadn’t been selected,” he says.
The funicular – the highest altitude railway in the UK – first started operating in 2001 and cost £19.5 million to build.
HIE successfully sued firms responsible for its original design and construction for £11 million in 2023.
That settlement – coupled with constant closures – led to further questions over whether the funicular was ever fit for purpose.
Mr Joy opposed the 1.8-mile mountain railway from the start.
“The whole idea of constructing a funicular to perform that role at Cairngorm was daft,” he told The Press and Journal.
The longtime skiier started out on the slopes at Glenshee in 1964, and regularly visited Cairngorm in the 1970s and 1980s.
As someone with extensive project management expertise for several oil and gas firms, Mr Joy is dismayed by what he branded HIE’s mismanagement.
“There’s been no oversight of quality control,” he says.
“There’s been nobody looking over people’s shoulders and seeing that the work is carried out correctly.”
Back for winter snowsports?
HIE took direct control for running the funicular in 2018, after the previous company went into administration.
The development agency says railway will be functioning before the end of this year.
A spokesperson for HIE said: “Our contractor Balfour Beatty is on course to complete remediation works in time for the funicular to be back in service for the winter season at Cairngorm, which starts in late December.
“That’s dependent on a range of factors, of course, with weather being one of them.”
The P&J asked HIE to respond to Mr Joy’s comments and contacted Balfour Beatty for a response.
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