From January 1, 2021, cars travelling in and out of Penang will no longer be able to count on the alternative option of making the crossing by ferry. The Penang ferry is sailing into history, with all the remaining vessels in the current Rapid Ferry fleet set to be retired from service at the start of next year.
While public transportation across the channel will continue with the adoption of water bus crafts, these will only carry passengers, The Star reports. As such, four-wheeled vehicles will have to utilise the two bridges that link the island to the peninsular for their travel.
The retirement of the aging ferry fleet coincides with Penang Port (PPSB) taking over operations of the shuttle service from Prasarana. This will bring the service back into the hands of PPSB, which previously ran the business before transferring it to Prasarana in 2017.
The new water bus replacements will enter service within the next 10 to 12 months, said PPSB CEO Sasedharan Vasudevan. He said the company will run three passenger-only water buses in the updated service, which will also see the current terminal being refurbished. He added that PPSB will also have two vehicular ferries, or roll-on/roll-off (Ro-Ro) vessels, but these will only carry motorcycles.
On the omission of transporting four-wheeled vehicles, Sasedharan said that the priority of the service would be to transport pedestrians. “Transport minister Datuk Seri Wee Ka Siong recently said in Parliament that only 200,000 vehicles used the ferry services, while 1.2 million were pedestrians. Our top priority are commuters who use the ferries to get to work daily,” he explained.
The current ferry fleet is being retired because they are becoming difficult to keep in service, and disruptions are becoming a regular occurrence. Sasedharan said most of the vessels were more than 40 years old and not really seaworthy. “The present fleet of ferries are ageing and it’s difficult to find replacement spare parts,” he said.
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NYC being much advanced city with 8mil residents proud with their Staten Island ferry which is a tourist attraction and daily commuting.
Kereta terbang sudah mari oh. Hohoho
DUHHHHH… but look at the size of NY Staten Island ferry. It is huge. It has a single route but transports 22 million passengers a year. NY City offers the service FREE.
The problem with Penang Ferry is it is old and unsafe must be replaced by a new one or any other alternative. Only 1.3 million foot passengers use the ferry service while only about 240,000 four-wheeled vehicles utilise the ferry annually…!
Penang Govt passing the buck and does not want to manage it… let alone give the service free…!
So now it will be operated by private company. If the new operators can come up with something as huge yet save costs… then its a no brainer.
Anyways… Penangites can all flock to use the undersea tunnel.
Travesty
Imagine if one sinks while ferrying everyone. Good to retire those floating coffins.
Just keep a pair operational for tourism and historic reasons. London bus route also kept a few of the classical Routemaster busses operational among the modern double decker busses.
Even if the ticket to double from the current RM7.70 to RM15.00 (and for each way, not just single way as for now), I for one would gladly pay it to take my car on the ferry rather then the boring bridge. Surely a single car ticket of RM15 each way would sustain the maintenance of a pair of ferries for tourism and historic reasons.
latest news
yay! the penang ferry is saved… for now.
Another thing about malaysian leaders.
They never ever ask about the people’s opinion when deciding on something.
Because total democracy is mob rule.
sudah Uturn, resume the service.
But if use Bridge there is chance of getting saman but won’t with ferry
Transfer ….terus award.
Objective achieved.
Yes people are sad. But to make progress, we need to move on.
This news is a day old. Today there is news saying they got 30 Million funding so the ferries are here to stay.
Amphibious cars, anyone?