Asia-Pacific News
Hong Kong's troubled cable car reopens to public
By DPA
Dec 31, 2007, 4:51 GMT

Hong Kong - Hong Kong's cable car ride to its Big Buddha monument reopened to the paying public on New Year's Eve after being closed in June when an unoccupied cabin crashed 50 metres to the ground.

Hundreds of passengers were expected to queue for the ride on Lantau island after a series of successful test runs involving 40,000 people riding free over the past week.

The year-old, 5.7-kilometre ride was closed for an investigation after a cabin broke free during test runs shortly after the 125-million-US-dollar ride had closed for the day on June 11.

No one was inside the cabin, capable of carrying up to 17 people, when it fell the equivalent of more than 13 storeys into a mangled heap in undergrowth.

The green light to reopen the ride came after an expert panel confirmed the design of the system was in line with international safety standards and practices, but a cable car worker has been charged with criminal negligence as the result of the investigation, and the entire Australian management team was sacked.

The new operating company brought in following the accident plans to rebuild confidence in the ride with a series of special offers and discounts.

Managing director Morris Cheung said 450 tickets had been sold in advance for the ride, which he believes would attract 1.5 million people a year.

'We are ready to run. Morale is high,' he said ahead of the opening.

The ride travels hundreds of metres above sea level over steep hillsides to the Big Buddha statue, the world's tallest outdoor seated bronze Buddha.

Accidents involving cable car cabins falling are rare. In 1976, a steel cable snapped on a cable car at the ski resort of Cavalese, Italy, killing 42 people.