Tokaido Shinkansen Services Disrupted All Day
Tokyo, July 22 (Jiji Press)--Tokaido Shinkansen bullet train services were suspended throughout Monday between Hamamatsu and Nagoya stations in central Japan, following a derailment accident involving two maintenance trains.
The accident forced a total of 328 trains to be canceled, affecting some 250,000 people.
Central Japan Railway Co., or JR Tokai, the operator of the Tokaido Shinkansen line, plans to resume the services in the section from the first trains on Tuesday.
A maintenance train that lays ballast, or small rocks under rail tracks, collided with a halted maintenance train that tamps down the ballast, on a section between Toyohashi and Mikawa-Anjo stations, both in the central Japan prefecture of Aichi, around 3:35 a.m., according to JR Tokai.
The collision derailed both trains and caused two workers to sustain injuries that were not life-threatening.
The train laying ballast hit the other train when heading back to Toyohashi. Although the driver operated the brake when the car was running at a speed of 40 kilometers per hour downhill, the brake did not work for some reason. The company is investigating the details of the accident.
Tokaido Shinkansen services were initially suspended between Tokyo Station and Nagoya Station in Aichi. The suspended section was later reduced to between Hamamatsu Station in Shizuoka Prefecture and Nagoya Station.
All Nozomi fastest trains on the Tokaido Shinkansen line, which connects Tokyo Station and Shin-Osaka Station in Osaka Prefecture, western Japan, were canceled. Hikari and Kodama train operations were reduced.
"We deeply apologize for the inconvenience caused by the delay of many trains since their first service of the day," a senior JR Tokai official told a press conference Monday night.
West Japan Railway Co., or JR West, suspended the direct trains between its Sanyo Shinkansen line, which links Shin-Osaka Station and Hakata Station in the southwestern prefecture of Fukuoka, and the Tokaido Shinkansen line, except for two trains.
To offer alternative travel routes to those affected, All Nippon Airways and Japan Airlines decided to operate special flights between Tokyo's Haneda Airport and Osaka International Airport, known as Itami airport, in western Japan. Operations of special trains on the Hokuriku Shinkansen line were also decided.
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