Visitors taking the free shuttle service which offered eight trips daily from Komtar bus terminal (Station 9) to Penang Hill lower station and vice versa. — LIM BENG TATT/The Star
PENANG Hill was swarming with tourists during the holiday season.
To deal with public complaints of traffic congestion during Hari Raya Aidilfitri, Penang Hill Corporation offered a free shuttle bus service for three consecutive days ending on April 24.
The corporation’s general manager Datuk Cheok Lay Leng said the pilot service saw non-stop trips being made from 9am to 9pm daily from the hill’s lower station to Komtar and back.
“Over the three days, some 800 visitors took the free shuttle service,” he said, adding that every holiday season would bring complaints of traffic congestion in the area and the lack of parking space.
Cheok said that the 300 lots in the Penang Hill multi-storey carpark and 200 more in the area were insufficient.
The free shuttle service operated on April 22 to 24, 9am to 9pm. It offered eight trips daily from Komtar Bus Terminal (Station 9) to Penang Hill Lower Station and vice versa. - LIM BENG TATT/The Star
“We noticed ample parking bays in town during the weekends and thought that tourists could park in town before making their way to Penang Hill on the free shuttle bus,” he said.
Following the success of the service, Cheok said the corporation would consider offering free shuttle rides during upcoming holidays and long weekends.
“We worked together with Rapid Penang to offer the service and the bus featured a special wrap to celebrate the Penang Hill railway’s 100th anniversary,” he said, adding that the wrap made the bus easy to spot.
The bus was also wheelchair- friendly.
“This is our way of encouraging more people to use public transport to reduce the carbon footprint,” he said.
Cheok said the Raya break saw an average of 7,000 to 8,000 visitors to the hill per day.
“This is good as during pre-pandemic times, we would see around 10,000 visitors per day,” he said, adding that rain and shorter hours because of the upper station upgrading work could have reduced the number of visitors.
“We have been busy and if there are more than 6,000 visitors a day, they have to wait for the train for more than an hour.”
For the first quarter of 2023, Penang Hill received nearly 400,000 visitors, with 25% of them from neighbouring countries. The top three nationalities visiting Penang Hill are from Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand.
