By AYATERU HOSOZAWA/ Staff Writer
October 19, 2019 at 17:20 JST
Nearly two weeks after losing a third of its fleet in flooding from Typhoon No. 19, the Hokuriku Shinkansen Line will resume service along its entire route between Tokyo and Kanazawa from the first train on Oct. 25.
Railway operator East Japan Railway Co. (JR East) announced on Oct. 18 that the service between Nagano Station in Nagano Prefecture and Joetsu-myoko Station in Niigata Prefecture, which has been suspended since Oct. 13, will restart.
In the aftermath of the typhoon, service from Tokyo Station only extended as far as Nagano Station and back, while operations from Kanazawa Station only ran to Joetsu-myoko Station and back.
Originally, the Hokuriku Shinkansen Line had operated with 30 bullet trains. However, 10 of them were inundated by floodwaters from the typhoon. They are now unable to be operated and may be scrapped.
To resume the line, JR East will utilize backup bullet trains to restore 80 percent of the normal timetable after Oct. 25. In terms of the Kagayaki and Hakutaka Shinkansen trains, which directly connect Tokyo and Kanazawa, 90 percent of the normal timetable will be operated.
A detailed train schedule will be announced on Oct. 23.
According to JR East, at the Nagano Shinkansen rail yard in Nagano, which was inundated from flooding of the nearby Chikumagawa river, seven bullet trains were parked outside a building, while three were inside.
Electrical devices to control the motors and brakes, as well as devices below the train floor including wiring, were completely submerged in all 10 trains. The cost of constructing each train is estimated at about 3.3 billion yen ($30 million).
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