The Barisan Nasional Bukit Bendera Consituency Coordinator H’ng Chee Wey said, after the announcement of the new fare for Penang Hill Cable Car ride was made, he received a lot of complaints from the public that a 100% increase of fare which would be implemented starting 1st May, 2011 is too much.

H’ng Chee Wey is disappointed with the respective authority for not gathering the feedback and comments from the public before announcing the new Penang Hill Cable Car charge.

H’ng Chee Wey, who is also the Secretary of the Penang Gerakan Youth said, it is acceptable to impose a different fare on foreigners because we found that a lot of overseas tourist attractions are also collecting different fare from local and foreign tourists.

H’ng Chee Wey said, however, for local tourists, the authority is charging an adult RM8 from the initial RM4, whilst young children and student’s fare has also increased from RM2 to RM4, that is an increase of 100% which is too high.

Hence, H’ng Chee Wey is suggesting to the respective authority to reconsider the issue of increment of fare, he suggests that the increase is best capped at 25%, i.e. the fare for adult would be RM5 whilst for children and student is RM2.50.

On a separate note, H’ng Chee Wey is in the opinion that the authority should consider setting different fares for weekdays and weekends to encourage the local tourists to spend their time on the hill during normal days.

Nevertheless, H’ng Chee Wey appreciates that the monthly ticket system is still preserved at the same rate of RM 24 by the authority for the benefit of the Penang hill residents, hawkers as well as the staff. At the meantime, H’ng Chee Wey hopes that the authority would consider giving a 50% discount on the RM5 single trip fare for the Penang hill residents who do not possess the monthly pass.