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Thu, 02 Sep 2010
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 NEWS WITHOUT BORDERS :: Local News |
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Penang Hill funicular train makes last trip
by Bernard Cheah and Wong Wooi Kean
GEORGE TOWN (Feb 21, 2010) : Foreign and local visitors were surprised to hear that the iconic 87-year old Penang Hill funicular train would make its last trip today, and would be replaced with a new train system.
College students Tan Soo Ni and her friend Quah Sui Pheng were shocked to find out the train system will be closed for seven months beginning today (Feb22).
"We woke up early morning to so that we can get tickets to go up Penang Hill," said Tan, 19, who lives in Bukit Mertajam.
"We will keep the ticket stubs as mementos," she said.
Engineer Yousuf Al Naabi, 27, from Muscat, Oman, who is visiting Penang for the first time, said he was fortunate to ride on the train today.
University undergraduate Mohd Nazrin Mohd Pauzi, 20, did not know that his ride up Penang Hill with his friends from Terengganu would be his first and last on the funicular train.
"I did not know work on replacing the train system would start tomorrow," he said.
The Penang Hill Funicular Railway was built in 1907 and is a cable train pulled by steel cable electrically driven with 500 volts power.
Penang Public Works, Utilities and Transport Committee chairman Lim Hock Seng reportedly said recently that the new train system would take 10 minutes to ferry passengers from bottom station to top station, without needing to stop at the middle station, compared with the current 30-minute ride.
He added the new system would combine the two tracks into one and a new passing loop would be built about 100m above the present middle station.
Lim said Penang Hill residents and hotel operators would operate a jeep service up the hill from the Botanical Gardens during the closure.
The RM63 million project is undertaken by the Tourism Ministry and is expected to be ready by the end of the year.
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Updated: 04:48PM Sun, 21 Feb 2010
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