The Scottish public agency Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) has announced that it has allocated some £4 million in funding over the next three to four years for the iconic Cairngorm funicular railway.

HIE claimed that its investment would see the site brought up to an appropriate standard that would enable bids from new contractors hopefully from the private sector. Car parking changes for the railway service have also been proposed by HIE.

The agency took over responsibility for the operation of the funicular railway at Cairngorm’s ski resort in May 2008 and the latest announcement comes at a time when the Scottish parliament is investigating spending at the location. HIE has provided close to £20 million of the £26 million already spent to date on the railway. The news follows agreements that have been reached over large debts currently owed by Cairngorm Mountain Limited with both the Cairngorm Mountain Trust and the Bank of Scotland. The Highland Council has also declared that it will write off an existing loan of £1 million owed by CML.

The mountain railway was launched in 2001 and its running is expected to be put out to public tender. Last year, around 400,000 people used the car park that serves the line says HIE, with half of those visitors reportedly using the funicular.

Elsewhere, the audit committee from the Scottish parliament is gathering evidence regarding the funding of the funicular railway in response to an investigation by Audit Scotland, the spending watchdog.