Book Review
Horse trams & trolley buses
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Book Review
Horse trams & trolley buses
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| Steam PENANG's first tramway was steam driven, running in the 1880s. Also in operation were horse trams. With the completion of the Municipal Electric Power Station the electric tram service - the George Town Municipal Tramway (GTMT)) - started its runs on 1 January 1906 along the 21/2 mile track from the Prison to the Jetty. The track was later extended to Ayer Itam. Fare was three cents a stage and five cents for first class. The authors of this valuable and attractive book, “Penang Trams, Trolley Buses & Railways” note that as rickshaws were preferred by the well to do the 1st class compartment failed to attract its intended passengers GTMT became GTCT - George Town City Transport - when George Town became a city on 1 January 1957. The depot was at Tramway Road, off Dato Kramat Road, near the prison. The motor bus, the mosquito bus and the trolley bus together killed of the trams in 1936. Looking back we can only regret the short sightedness of the colonial administrators. Had they preserved at least one line it would have added to the attractions of Penang. Think of the delight of riding in a tram in Zurich or Melbourne or Berlin or Holland! But poor George Town, all that remains are some tracks recently uncovered at the junction of Chula Street and Penang Road and now reverently preserved. Trolley buses which replaced the trams were popular when the flat rate of 10 cents was introduced from 1947 to 1950 . With the power station completed at Udini Road in 1957, came the “golden summer” of the trolleybus fleet. We learn of the level of sophistication of administration which did not tax electric vehicles because they came under the electricity department whereas motor buses had to pay road tax for not being under Electricity. There is one section of the book dedicated to the hill railway. It is obvious that the authors did not read what Lim Cheng Ean’s note on the hill railway (The Penang File May 2002 issue) on A R Johnson, the genius who was inspired to build the railway in two sections, and his subsequent sidelining because he did not know how to “angkat” his boss, the general manager of the FMS Railways, ending his days as a minor engineer stationed at remote Bukit Mertajam |
We have photos in this book of the baby trolley buses that shuttled
between Ayer Itam Road and the bottom station of the hill railway, carrying
only nine passengers, the smallest of its kind in the world The book includes a chapter on the unique electric railway which carried tin ingots of the Eastern Smelting Company to the habour along the tramlines. We kids used to watch the tram as it emerged from the Eastern Smelting plant opposite the prison loaded with ingots, while we waited impatiently for our favourite goreng pisang at the stall located at the entrance, and talked to the Mama’s enormous minah bird which had a good enough vocabulary to talk back. None of us ever boarded a tram or a bus because we had good and reliable bicycles Many photos in this book are to be treasured. For instance the 1890 photo of the buildings at Weld Quay which we called the Borneo company buildings with their quaint balconies, demolished when the buildings were refurbished a few years ago. Another photo is of the FMS Railway station (now occupied by the customs) at Weld Quay which gave us a popular school boy puzzle: “which is the railway station without a train?,” aimed at country bumpkins from outstation.# Reg (Ric) Francis dedicates this book to the families of the dedicated workers and staff of the George Town Municipal Council who operated the public transport system of Penang island Book reviewed Penang Trams, Trolley Busses and Railways - Municipal Transport History 1880s - 1963 by Ric Francis and Colin Ganley Areca Books 2006 +++++++++++++ Note: We have asked Lim Kean Siew to comment on this passage in the book. “When the Council came under the control of the Socialist Front, the Transport Department under Chairman Councillor Lim Kean Siew made the great mistake of |
| deciding to change to an all diesel
fleet despite having many virtually new trolley buses. Upon implementation
the Council found itself going further into the red. One reason was that
electric transport was exempt from paying tax to the Road Transport Department,
but with the introduction of high capacity motor vehicles, the Council
found itself paying several hundred thousand dollars a year in road taxes
and vastly increased maintenance costs!”
Lim Kean Siew writes: I don’t know where they got the figures from but Transport was losing five million a year when I became chairman. In those three years, until Tengku Abdul Rahman abolished the city council and council elections, we were making money.. The whole system was corrupt and we did some cleaning up. Basically we took steps to make the employees take pride in their work and to feel that the city council was their very own. One measure was the naming of buses after deserving employees. Motor buses were already in use when the Labour Party won the elections. We changed to diesel to cut down costs. The authors should have stuck to their narrative of the history and technical details of the subject and not indulge in anti-Labour propaganda. |
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Women's Centre for Change
24-D Jones Road
Penang A voluntary, non-profit
organisation dedicated to enhancing women's status in society
and supporting women and children in crisis
Telephone 604 228 0342 Fax 604 228 5784 Email wcc@wccpenang.org |
| _____ INDEX Point to the article
that you want to read, and CLICK
Index page Baba talk China, 1421 Good
food Jungle war (4)
Penang's Trams |
| _____________________ The Penang File Issue 45 |