UPDATED…
(I got this one right! See my later post in August 2013, when Network Rail announced plans to to see this idea installed – but the price… £12 million to £15 million.)
I couldn’t let the idea of installing a viewing platform and lifts for visitors on to the Forth Bridge pass without comment.
At a time when millions are being poured down the drain to promote the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in 2014, on the basis of some fantasy known as ‘Lasting Legacy’ (promised to follow all such events, but seldom delivered afterwards), this idea is just too sensible to ever see the light of day.
But, I hope my first thoughts on this are proved wrong.
Rather than the grand ideas that attract publicity, this is sort of thing we desperately need to see more of in Scotland if it is to profit from its role as a ‘tourist trap’ now that it has no industry to speak of.
There must be (and there are) many more ideas such as this floundering around out there, too expensive for inspired individuals to finance and turn into reality without backing, but still costing just a fraction of the huge money-pits like the 2014 Games, whose high-profile, but here-today-gone-tomorrow nature, sees grabbing all the investment.
We need more smaller projects which are sustainable and here to stay, spread across the country and keeping a steady drip of visitors moving around and parting with their tourist cash, rather than big-bang one-off events that cost more to stage than they can ultimately return.
Rail chiefs are looking at the idea of building a viewing platform for visitors to be hoisted more than 300ft to the top of the Forth Rail Bridge.
Network Rail, which manages the bridge, has confirmed it is examining the feasibility of establishing visitor access.
The platform would offer impressive views of all around the Firth of Forth.
via BBC News – Plan for viewing platform at top of Forth Rail Bridge.
Also Viewing platform could turn Forth Bridge into Scotland’s Eiffel Tower | News | Edinburgh | STV
Forth Bridge no scaffolding in 2011 © James Allan
Update
It seems the above idea made it into the news only a few days before the 122nd anniversary of the first train crossing the Forth Bridge.
You can see hundred of images of this iconic bridge, dating from its very beginnings to the present day, here:
Secret Scotland 