Penang Hill - Funicular Railway coordinates were taken at the Hill top Station Penang, Malaysia.
•Penang Hill is the oldest British hill station in Southeast Asia, dated late 1700’s
•The highest peak of Penang Hill stand at 833 metres (2,732ft) above sea level.
•Penang Hill funicular train service started on October 1923
•The current funicular trains is the 4th generation system which started its operation on 24th April 2011.
?1st generation: 1906-1906
?2nd generation: 1923 – 1977
?3rd generation: 1977 -2010
•The funicular track stretches a distance of 1,996 metres (1.99KM) from lower to Upper Station which is the longest in Asia.
•Penang Hill funicular tunnel, at 79 metres (258ft) long and 10feet (3.0m) wide with a steepness of 27.9degree, is the steepest tunnel track in the world.
•There are a total of 52 hill bungalows located on Penang Hill (42 of them are private-owned and 10 bungalows are state-owned). Most of them are more than 100 years old and Bel Retiro (Governors Bungalows) built in 1789 is the oldest.
•Number of visitor to Penang Hill in 2014 exceed 1.36million." Text Source: (
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"Penang Hill is a hill resort comprising a group of peaks on Penang Island, Malaysia. It is located in Air Itam, 6 kilometres (3.7 mi) west of the city centre of George Town. Penang Hill is also known by the Malay name Bukit Bendera, which actually refers to Flagstaff Hill, the most developed peak.
Penang Hill covers a number of hills, with the highest point at Western Hill which is 833 metres (2,733 ft) above sea level. The hill stands out prominently from the lowlands as a hilly and forested area. It was used as a retreat during the British colonial period, and is now a popular tourist destination in Penang.
The top of the hill is accessible via the Penang Hill Railway from its base station at Jalan Bukit Bendera, Air Itam. To date, this funicular railway system is the only one of its kind in Malaysia, transporting over a million visitors to the peak of Penang Hill as of 2014." Text Source: (
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"The Penang Hill Railway was initially constructed for the British colonial community to enjoy the cooler air of the Penang Hill. The first attempt at a mountain railway on Penang Hill began with a proposal by three British residents, D. Logan, Joseph Heim and Alan Wilson and the formation of a private company in 1897, with funding from the colonial administration. The first attempt used the steam engine and was not funicular, and it proved to be a failure. The line was constructed between 1901 and 1905, but did not work due to technical faults.
The Straits government then organized a new project in 1909.[5] The Penang Hills Funicular Railway was designed by Arnold R Johnson, an engineer with the Federated Malay States Railways, based on a Swiss design. Construction of the second railway cost 1.5 million Straits dollars, and the 2,007m long funicular railway was informally opened on October 21, 1923 and it commenced operation. After a successful trial period, on 1 January 1924, the railway was officially opened by the then Governor of Straits Settlement, Sir L.N. Guillemard. In its first year of operation it carried 35,201 passengers and made 4,021 trips. The Penang Municipality, George Town managed and maintained the railway from its opening until February 1, 1977, when it was taken over by the Penang state Government.
Until 2010, the Penang Hills Funicular Railway had two independent sections due to the difference in gradient between the lower and upper section, and passengers were required to change train in the middle station. The upper and lower sections each had two counterbalanced 40-passenger cars, and each section had a passing loop in the middle and intermediate stops. The cars were pulled by steel cable electrically driven with 500 volts power. The railway has a tunnel which measures 258 feet long and is the steepest tunnel in the world. It took 30 minutes to go up the hill on the funicular service with a change of train in the middle station." Text Source: (
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