GEORGE TOWN, Dec 30 — The Penang state government should take over the ferry operations if it is really concerned about federal government's plan to fully retire the iconic ferries and replace it with new water buses and vehicle transporters, said Penang Gerakan's H'ng Chee Wey.
The Penang Gerakan secretary said Penang DAP leaders have been putting on theatrics over the Transport Ministry and Penang Port Commission's (PPC) plans to phase out the old ferries when they could do something about it.
“The Penang state government is led by DAP so they could offer to take over the ferry operations to maintain the ferries if they are really sincere in wanting to preserve the ferries,” he said in a press conference at Penang Gerakan headquarters today.
However, he said the state government had made it clear that they had no intention of taking over the ferry operations.
He referred to news reports of Penang Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow stating that the state had no intention to take over the ferry operations from the federal government.
He said DAP leaders are now merely complaining when they could have done something to upgrade and improve the ferry operations when they were part of the federal government.
“They were in the federal government, DAP held the Transport and Finance Ministers posts for 22 months but what did they do during that period? They could've upgraded the ferries then but they didn't do anything and now that they are no longer in government, they are suddenly so vocal about preserving the ferries,” he said.
H'ng said the Pakatan Harapan-led state government, in its 12 years tenure, could have also taken steps to get the Penang ferries listed as national heritage, or even Unesco heritage.
He said if the ferries were listed as national heritage or Unesco heritage, it will be protected and preserved.
While H'ng agreed that there is a need to improve the efficiency of the ferry operations with the introduction of new water buses and vehicle transporters, he said the iconic ferries should also be preserved.
“I feel that the ferries should be preserved solely for tourism purposes while the new water buses and vehicle transporters could cater for those who commute across the channel for work daily,” he said.
He said Hong Kong had also preserved its ferries for local and tourism use.
The Penang ferry service is 126 years old and the old ferries will be seeing the last two days of operations before being retired from service for good from January 1 onwards.
Only one ferry, Pulau Angsa, will continue to ply the Penang channel between the island and mainland until July 2022 when new vehicle transporters will start operations.
Ferry service operator, Penang Port Sdn Bhd, will be upgrading the ferry terminals on both the island and mainland to accommodate the new water buses and vehicle transporters that are slotted to arrive in mid 2022.
In the interim period, Pulau Angsa will continue to ferry bicycles and motorcycles over the channel while two fast boats will ferry foot passengers to and from the Swettenham Pier Cruise Terminal.
There will no longer be any ferries to transport four-wheeled vehicles and the new vehicle transporters will only ferry two-wheeled vehicles.
