what? do away with the ferry?

shocked to read that penang plans to scrap vehicular ferry service once the second bridge is ready. the reasons being that the second bridge might be able to handle the traffic volume and also that the ferry service had been running at a loss.

penang port chief said they, however will still retain 4 vehicular cum passengers ferries. i suppose this is more for passengers convenience since passengers don’t drive and can’t use the bridge… but then they are vehicular -cum-passenger ferries, which means vehicles still can use it.

now i understand no. 1, some drivers prefer to use ferry than bridge and no. 2 the ferry service is one of the tourist (even domestic) attraction. if drivers prefer the ferry than the bridge, and there are only 4 ferries, how? will 4 ferries be enough to handle the passengers load to and fro, especially during peak hours (on and off office hours)? will they after saying to leave 4 ferries, later on scrap all of them altogether? then penang lose one tourist attraction!

penang port chief was heard to say that they plan to introduce speedboat.

He said the company also planned to operate a speedboat ferry service as it was cheaper and efficient.“The speedboat idea was mooted three years ago. Travel time between the island and mainland on speedboats will only take eight to 10 minutes compared with 20 minutes using the ferry,”

speedboat! yeah granted it is fast… but what happened if we have ah pek and mak cik who dare not take the speedboat? also those who are sea-sick might get sick in the sea with speed (but not in the ferry since it is slow moving). oh yeah, also of course the ferry service is good for poor car-less people like me.

ok in my opinion, first of all, i’m oppose to the second bridge. long ago when the idea of the second bridge was mooted, i already protested against it alongside with other NGO like aliran. the reason being that with a second bridge it might not necessarily ease the traffic going in and out of the mainland. in fact, traffic might be heavier in penang if there is a second bridge as more vehicles from out of penang might want to use it. more vehicles coming in means more traffic jam on the island of penang!

secondly, instead of building a second bridge, why can’t they upgrade/improve the ferry service? er… but they said they had been incurring loses, so how to upgrade?

PPSB, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Finance Ministry after its corporatisation on Jan 1, 1994, has been incurring an annual loss of RM12mil operating the ferries. It also manages the port.

Mohd Niana said the company was losing about RM200 on each ferry trip, adding that the operating cost was RM600 while revenue collected was RM400.

hmm… finance ministry? satu lagi projek BN… under the PM… that incurred loses. loses? hmm…. how on earth?

on the subject of transport, not too long ago, the new state government announced that they planned to build an underground railway instead of the monorail.

i have no idea about transportation techie stuffs and particularly this underground railway… e.g. how’s the construction like, what’s the cost. anyway, is it feasible to have an underground railway in penang island? island, mind you. a piece of land surrounded by water. what will happen to penang island after all the digging underground?

why don’t the government consider bringing back trams… within the town area. do you remember i blog about tram and railway expert, ric francis (whom i had known as a personal friend via a forum), was in penang to give a talk about trams in penang? he had came out with many advantages of having trams. it would be a good idea to bring back the tram but er…. looking at the chaotic traffic situation nowadays in penang town itself, maybe trams won’t fit in?