Penang Hill train back on track after breakdown

Safely does it: Visitors to Penang Hill making their way down the side tracks.

GEORGE TOWN: The Penang Hill funicular train service will be up and running today following a one-hour breakdown due to a technical glitch yesterday.

Penang Hill Corporation (PHC) general manager Datuk Cheok Lay Leng said all the necessary test runs and ground works had been carried out before its reopening to holidaymakers.

He said the track brake had locked after the safety mechanism detected a potential fault.

“We have spares for the track brake after learning our lesson all these years. We ordered new ones during the movement control order period and are still waiting for its arrival,” he said when contacted yesterday.

Yesterday, the disruption of the funicular train service put a damper on holiday plans for some 150 visitors.

About 40 of them had to trudge down the hill while another 40 were taken to the hilltop before being brought down to the Penang Botanic Gardens via the jeep track.

All of them were in two affected coaches, one which was going uphill and the other downhill, during the breakdown at 2.15pm.

Cheok said the corporation spent less than an hour to rectify the problem, and another hour to bring all the stranded visitors to safety.