Funicu-La Funico-No

There's something deeply deeply wrong about the Cairngorm Funicular Railway that takes eager tourists up the side of Britain's 6th highest mountain, to a point about 120 metres beneath the summit. It's not just that it's an environmental disaster or an offence against good taste - the transport caff naffness of the Ptarmigan Restaurant where old Bee-Gees hits play non-stop is deliciously retro in its own very special way. It's the sheer effrontery by which its operators present it as having something to contribute to the management of the environment, including a voluntary £1 'carbon deficit' donation solicited from anyone driving their car up to the lower station.
Clearly the most desirable environmental consequence would have been if the operators had chosen not to build it in the first place. Though if just one of the obese hordes of T-shirt clad trippers are inspired to walk back up in designer Goretex the next time, I suppose it might be possible to claim the whole thing was worthwhile. On the other hand . . .