Lantau cable car opening is put off again
The Ngong Ping 360 cable car has suffered another setback, with plans for a launch this month falling through. Instead, trials of the beleaguered service will continue.
Bill Calderwood, managing director of Skyrail ITM, hoped the company would be able to make an announcement by the end of next week about trial runs.
Depending on the outcome of these trials, he hoped the service might open 'some time' next month.
Finding people to take part in the trials would not be too difficult, he said, despite heavy criticism from some quarters following a breakdown during a trial run in June.
Hundreds of people, mostly MTR Corporation staff and their families, were stranded in cabins for more than two hours.
The cable car was forced to postpone its opening, which had been scheduled for June 24. But after more tests last month, the operator said it expected to open at the end of August.
'I think most people are realistic and we have been taking a very systematic approach to make sure that when we operate it again, everything has been tested many times over,' Mr Calderwood said.
He said MTR and Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation staff had taken part in the trials and had been treated to a lunch paid for by the MTR.
But he said there were no plans to pay individuals carried as passengers, as suggested by some legislators during a specially convened Legislative Council meeting last month. 'It's not our normal practice to pay for volunteers. We are providing an opportunity for people to try the cable car for free,' Mr Calderwood said.
