GEORGE TOWN: A civil servant and his family suffered their “worst holiday” at Penang Hill after the funicular train service was disrupted and they had to spend hours waiting for a four-wheel drive to take them down.

       They were among the almost 1,000 visitors who were stranded on the hilltop after the train service halted.

       Shahrul Saad, 35, had brought his wife and three children, including a baby, to Penang for a much-deserved holiday.

       His woes started at 6.39pm on Sunday when the Penang Hill Corporation (PHC) stopped the train service due to an error in the system.

       After having his dinner, the train was still out of order and Shahrul was told to wait for the pickup to drive him and his family downhill to the Penang Botanic Gardens.

       “The queue was so long. We were so exhausted. It was not a pleasant trip at all,” lamented Shahrul, who is from Melaka.

       By the time, they got down from the hill, it was past 11pm.

       Those with cars had to still wait for buses to bring them back to the lower hill station in Ayer Hitam many kilometres away.

       This is the third time that the funicular train has broken down since October when some 150 people were stranded midway up Penang Hill.

       In November, Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow suggested shutting down the Penang Hill funicular train service if it continued to break down, saying that passenger safety was of paramount importance rather than revenue.

       Chow, who is also PHC chairman, had said he would leave the decision to the management.

       In 2017, hundreds of visitors were left stranded on the peak for several hours after the funicular train experienced a technical malfunction.

       In December 2019, just a few days after a visit from Yang di-Pertuan Agong Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri’ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah, some 800 holidaymakers were stranded at the Middle Station after the funicular train broke down.Earlier that month, about 150 tourists, including senior citizens, were stranded at Middle Station due to suspected power failure.

       The funicular train saw a major upgrade costing RM63mil in February 2010.

       PHC said the funicular service was temporarily disrupted after it experienced communication signal errors which resulted in it operating at a slower speed.

       “Preliminary checks showed that the power line was facing disturbances, causing errors to the system.“Due to the high sensitivity of the system, the funicular operates at a lower speed upon detection of any error,” it said.

       PHC said there was no breakdown and that it was merely a safety procedure and reaffirmed that the funicular service was safe for operations.

       The funicular resumed normal operations as usual at 6.30am yesterday.