Regardless of voices on the contrary, it does appear to be it’s the tip of the highway for the long-lasting Penang ferry. On the evening of December 31, the long-running ferry service will make its remaining run, ending its greater than century-long historical past, The Star experiences.
On January 1, Penang Port (PPSB) will take over the operations of the service and start utilising its new water buses, which is able to come within the type of two quick boats. As reported beforehand, they may solely carry passengers, that means that vehicles travelling out and in of Penang will now not be capable of rely on the choice choice of constructing the crossing by water.
“The 2 quick boats are right here, and until there’s a new directive, we’ll keep on with the plan of utilizing the quick boats from January 1 to quickly ferry passengers,” mentioned PPSB CEO Sasedharan Vasudevan. He added that one of many current ferries would nonetheless be in service, however used solely to move two-wheelers (bikes and bicycles) till it’s changed by new car transporters.
Sasedaran mentioned that the 2 ferry terminals will probably be revamped for to cater for the docking of the water buses and car transporters. The upgrades are anticipated to take 12 to 18 months, and the full value of the refurbishment in addition to the acquisition of the brand new vessels is anticipated to value round RM64 million, he mentioned.
As soon as the refurbishment is accomplished, the channel crossing service could have three water buses for passengers and two car transporters for two-wheelers. The latter will utterly change the previous ferries, seemingly by the third quarter of 2021.
Sasedaran mentioned that the brand new boats, which might take 200 passengers per journey, will shorten the journey time considerably. Each it and the brand new car transporter, which might deal with 100 bikes and bicycles, will be capable of make the crossing quicker than the previous ferry.
The most recent replace follows on per week of uncertainty over the previous ferries’ future existence. On December 15, it was revealed that the present Fast Ferry fleet could be retired from service on the finish of the 12 months, which prompted calls from varied events to keep up their use.
Finance minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Abdul Aziz then waded in by saying in Parliament that the ferry service would proceed. “The federal government will impose a situation on Penang Port to hold on the long-lasting and heritage ferry service,” he mentioned, explaining that this situation could be imposed in relation to the RM15 million out of the RM30 million that has been accredited for PPSB to take over the ferry service from Prasarana.
It stays to be seen if the previous ferries have a future. Difficulties in retaining the ageing fleet operating and repair disruptions prompted the choice to retire them from service, and it might take extra than simply cash to maintain them going, as a result of substitute elements are getting more durable to supply.
