THE Penang Hill funicular train service will resume operations at 6.30am on Saturday.

The service had been temporarily halted after the November 4-5 storms damaged the train track, scuppering services for the traditionally busy year-end holiday crowd.

The hill also saw 194 landslides following the severe storm, the worst Penang had seen in three decades.

Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng said works had commenced on November 5 to clear the debris, uprooted trees and boulders that had fallen on the track and repair the damage.

“But the recovery team faced challenges. The main one was the lack of accessibility by heavy machinery on the rail track.

“Soil clearance work had to be done manually, practically by hand, which was time-consuming,” he told a press conference today.

The damage suffered by the track also required the Penang Hill Corporation (PHC) to import spare parts. But the year-end holiday season and an airfreight services strike at the airport in Frankfurt, where the supplier was from, led to a delay.

“The spare parts arrived only on December 16, and the final repair work on the track was completed by Christmas day,” Lim said, adding that the train had its trial run on the same evening, followed by further tests for safety the following day.

The train, he said, has since been running on a limited service for business operators and stakeholders since yesterday.

The limited service will run until tomorrow to facilitate preparations for the full resumption of operations on Saturday.

PHC general manager Cheok Lay Leng said the authorities had also tried their best to make the hiking trails on the hill accessible to the public again after they were affected by landslides in the storm.

“Some parts are still inaccessible. But the heritage trail is safe. 

“We advise the public to follow the signs we have put up for safety,” he said, adding that PHC also welcomed public feedback on the matter. – December 28, 2017.