Media Statement
'Second Link' is actually Third Link
As we feared, the government is determined to push ahead with a new 9.2 km bridge-tunnel link from Bagan Jermal on Penang Island to Bagan Ajam on the mainland.
First, let's get the terminology straight. The ferry service is the original link - the First Link. The Penang Bridge, completed in 1985, is the Second Link - which makes the latest proposal the Third Link.
The justification for the Third Link is that the Penang Bridge is already "bursting at the seams." Why is it congested? Simply because many cars prefer to avoid the long wait - sometimes up to an hour during peak times - for ferries.
Even the cost for the Third Link - RM2.3 billion - appears understated. The Penang Bridge was built at a cost of RM850 million in 1985. Are we to believe that, 20 years later, the Third Link - with a fanciful 2.2 km tunnel complete with a 'titanic'-like ship as a tourist landmark, a viewing gallery and convention centres on the two man-made islands - will cost only RM2.3 billion by the time it is completed?
At a time when we are staring at the prospect of a recession, the decision to borrow more money from abroad to finance this project is baffling. Who are the contractors going to be and who is likely to benefit financially? Certainly not commuters: we note that there has been no mention of how much the toll will be. We expect it to be much more than the RM7 that the ferries and the Penang Bridge impose for a return journey.
The Third Link will also allow more traffic to pour into tiny Penang Island, whose streets are already "bursting at the seams." The increase in vehicular traffic on the island will destroy Penang's charm and turn away tourists at a time when Penang is trying to gain recognition as a World Heritage site.
The government should spend the money on expanding the ferry service (including building new ferry terminals at other locations), improving public transport, building a light rail transit and expanding the Penang Bridge. The ferry service can be expanded using a fraction of the RM2.3 billion and will immediately relieve congestion on the Penang Bridge.
We suspect that the ferry service has been purposely neglected - initially, to boost traffic volume and toll collection on the Penang Bridge, and now to justify the need for yet another link. Will it eventually be scrapped to increase traffic on the proposed bridge-tunnel. Is that why the new project is being dubbed the Second Link?
If at all there should be another link, it should be a train service that would link the island and the mainland and ply the passenger routes on both the island and the mainland. Aliran calls for the bridge-tunnel project to be scapped and replaced with a more public transport-friendly project.
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The refusal to acknowledge the ferry service as the First Link is reflected in the utter neglect of the ferry service. Today, less than half a dozen ferries - with only one deck for vehicles - ply the channel unlike in the 1980s when about a dozen ferries, including double-decker vehicular ferries, were deployed.