Revive the Penang Ferries

Have you been to Penang? Even better, have you taken the ferry?

When I was a kid, Penang was not only an entreport, but also a duty-free island. We kids were asked by our parents to be small-time smugglers! However, of all the things, we only smuggled shirts by wearing extras and hiding away sundries like Colgate. The Custome Officers on Butterworth checked adults thoroughly, but usually let loose on the kids!

The map above shows how the Penang Island was connected via ferry to the Mainland town of Butterworth. The Mainland part of Penang used to be called Province Wellesley (PW), a term now overtaken by Seberang Perai (SP), which RTM at times ignorantly equate it with the name of the town called Prai!

Ferry used to be the only means of getting across the Penang Channel. The ferry is double-decked. The upper deck is for pedestrians who walk to and fro between the ferry and bus stop. The bottom deck is meant for motored vehicles including the lorries, cars and motorcycles, and also bicycles. Later part of the history, a second wharf was constructed for each side of the channels, with the upper deck meant for cars also; and thus another type of ferry was introduced, with both decks for motored vehicles only.


I was told that our Penang ferry modelled upon the Hoog Kong equivalent, but I have never taken the Hong Kong one to confirm this.


I enjoyed taking the ferry both as a pedestrian as well as a motorcyclist. There used to be a small shop on the upper deck, and the 20-cent ice-cream was my favorite!

Lately, I have tried taking the ferry too, just to reminisce.

The breeze, the short break after a tiring traffic jam and the walking-up-and-down the decks would have make one happy with travelling on the ferry.

However, there are three problems about choosing the ferry over the Penang Bridge:

1. You are not sure about the timing of the ferry, you may have to wait a long time as it not only depends on the density of the traffic, but also the number of ferries in service at taht particulat time.
2. For pedestrians, connecting means of transport after taking the ferry is also a headache as buses were not regular, taxi is expensive and trishaw-beca was not popular. I am not sure if this problem has improved with the introduction of Rapid Penang, can someone advise me on this?
3. For cars, you may have to face the long queue waiting for the ferry, I am also not sure how bad is this problem now.

For regular travellors who know the above problems, proper scheduling would save a lot of time.

I know of my kampungmate, Mr Low the accountant, who is taking the ferry every day. He must have some clues. Hope to hear from him too.

We voted in the new Gomen (I played my part as I have voted for the State Deputy Speaker), let's hope our Guan Eng and his team can do something on improving the ferry service, while waiting for the dilly-dally vengeful decision on whether to build the 2nd Link and how much should UEM profit from it...

Related links for reading:

http://www.penangport.com.my/english/facilities/ferry_cruise.htm

http://anilnetto.com/2008/05/03/bridge-near-shanghai-works-out-cheaper-per-km-than-second-penang-bridge/