Penang S Cross Channel Lrt Will Hover 20 Storeys Above The Sea

---

More details have emerged about the Penang light rail transit known as the Mutiara Line.
The LRT was first proposed in the “SRS PTMP”, the transport plan that was put forward by the Gamuda-led SRS Consortium.
That plan envisaged a 30km elevated light rail line from Bayan Lepas to Komtar. It would have had 27 stations, including stations on three proposed reclaimed islands – A, B and C – off the south of Penang Island. (Islands B and C have now been put on hold, after the overly ambitious and ecologically damaging plan was scaled down.)
This LRT plan ignored the original Halcrow consultants’ blueprint for a bus and tram network to cover the entire state for a cost back then of just RM10bn.
But, as many predicted, the state government now finds itself unable to finance the SRS PTMP mega-projects and has passed its ‘baby’ to the federal government.
The federal government has come up with a revised LRT route, known as the “Mutiara Line”. One 24km line is from one of those three reclaimed islands – Island A – to Komtar on Penang Island, which is quite similar to the SRS plan. A new 6km branch line will now spin off from Macallum on Penang Island to Penang Sentral on the mainland. This cross-channel route includes a 3km stretch above the sea.
This cross-channel branch will hover 62m above the sea at its centre span to allow ships to pass below. That’s about the height of a 20-storey building – and over twice the 30m-height of the Penang Bridge centre span. Or two-thirds the height of those new ‘monopole’ electricity transmission towers recently constructed in the channel, parallel to the Penang Bridge.
Full article on Aliran website

---