LCQ14: Ocean Park Cable Car
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Question:
According to information from the Ocean Park Corporation, the total visitor numbers of Ocean Park (OP) in 2023-24 reached 3.14 million. It is learnt that the Cable Car is an immensely popular attraction that offers visitors the opportunity to relish scenic views during their journey. However, quite a number of members of the public have recently relayed to me that while the OP Cable Car is a two-lane ropeway system comprising two sets of round-trip cable cars with a total of four lanes, the OP only operates one set of two-lane ropeway for visitors on most weekends and public holidays, and as a result the waiting time for cable cars is at least half an hour, which has significantly undermined visitors' experience and their image of Hong Kong. I have learnt that as cable car operators are required to have high-angle rescue skills and obtain a licence, the OP is unable to put all four cable car lanes into full operation on all weekends and public holidays throughout the year (approximately 120 days) due to limited manpower resources. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council whether it knows:
(1) whether the OP has assessed the additional manpower required to operate all the cable car lanes on all weekends and public holidays throughout the year (approximately a total of 120 days); and
(2) whether the OP will consider recruiting experienced cable car operators from the Mainland or other regions to cope with the growing visitor demand; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?
Reply:
President,
The Cable Car at Ocean Park (OP) is an iconic attraction of the OP. For many years, it has been providing visitors with a unique recreational experience. The OP has two sets of cable car ropeways, each comprising an ascent route and a descent route. Each one-way ride takes about 13 minutes and each set of ropeway is capable of transporting up to 4 000 visitors per hour. Apart from the Cable Car, the Ocean Express (OE), a train launched in September 2009, provides an alternative means for travelling between the lower and upper parks of the OP, carrying up to 10 000 passengers per hour and taking about 4 minutes for each one-way ride. As the OE has a higher passenger capacity and shorter travel time, it has become the primary mode of transportation offering quicker travelling for visitors between the OP's lower and upper parks. On the other hand, the Cable Car has gradually turned into an attraction to enrich visitor experience and is one of the most popular facilities of the OP.
In consultation with the OP, the reply to the question raised by the Hon Michael Tien is as follows:
The OP has been operating and maintaining the cable cars in accordance with the Aerial Ropeways (Safety) Ordinance (Cap 211) to ensure the safety and reliability of the cable car service in compliance with the statutory requirements. In addition to daily routine mechanical inspections and operational testing, the cable car system has to undergo a number of regular inspections and preventive maintenance (e.g. sheave maintenance at the top of the cable car trestles, inspection and maintenance of the cabins and back-up power generator, etc.) before it is deemed suitable for passenger service. To ensure safe operation of the cable car system, cable car operators and controllers are required to hold relevant licences issued by the Electrical and Mechanical Services Department to ensure that they possess the necessary skills, professional knowledge and qualifications. Prospective cable car operators who wish to apply for the relevant licence at the OP have to undergo a series of training on the cable car system's daily operation, rescue, repair and maintenance, work on cable car trestles under the guidance of licensed controllers and operators during the training period, and accumulate at least one year of on-the-job experience, in order to be eligible for applying the licence. After obtaining the licence, they can only operate the cable car under the supervision of a cable car controller. Those who intend to obtain a cable car controller licence at the OP have to first acquire a cable car operator licence, accumulate at least one year of practical experience thereafter, and demonstrate the ability to perform large-scale component replacement and rapid fault handling before they are qualified to apply for the relevant licence.
The OP's cable car team currently consists of seven operators and nine controllers. In its 2024/25 financial year (Note), the OP provided visitors with 342 days of cable car service, including dual-ropeway service for 56 days and single-ropeway service for the remaining days. Currently, nine existing staff members of the OP are undergoing training and obtaining professional qualifications. If the OP were to operate the cable car continuously throughout the year and provide dual-ropeway cable car service on all weekends and public holidays for a total of about 120 days (except for extreme weather or major works such as cable replacement, etc.), the OP would need to identify and recruit an additional 16 new staff members to undergo training and accumulate the necessary on-the-job experience for applying for the relevant licences.
To provide visitors with quality recreational experience, the OP has been actively seeking to increase the manpower of its cable car operations through internal training as well as external recruitment. Apart from online job advertisement, the OP organises recruitment days on a regular basis and offers on-site interview opportunities for prospective candidates. Successful candidates are provided with benefits such as new joiner bonus, work-at-height allowance, rescue allowance, birthday leave, anniversary leave, etc, in order to recruit more suitable candidates to join the relevant job. However, as the job nature of cable car operations and maintenance are relatively specialised and the turnover rate is high, the OP finds it challenging to recruit suitable candidates from the local labour market. In light of this, apart from the continuing active local recruitment, the OP has been recruiting technical staff with at least three years of cable car-related experience from the Mainland since September 2024 under the Enhanced Supplementary Labour Scheme of the Labour Department. Of the nine existing staff members who are currently receiving training and acquiring professional qualifications, four were recruited from the Mainland through the Scheme.
As a practice, in determining the cable car service to be provided to cater for the projected number of visitors each day, the OP will abide by the principle of proper utilisation of resources and take into account various factors, including whether the day is a weekday or a holiday, weather conditions, in-park promotional activities, and the location and schedule of special events, etc.
Note: The OP's financial year (FY) starts on every July 1 and ends on June 30 of the following year. In FY 2024/25, the park was closed for 12 days due to its dark day arrangement. And, owing to cable car maintenance and typhoon, the cable car service was suspended for another 11 days.
Ends/Wednesday, July 9, 2025
Issued at HKT 12:00
Issued at HKT 12:00
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