By EIICHI MURANO/ Staff Writer
July 9, 2020 at 18:55 JST
Hakone Tozan Railway Co. tests a train in Hakone, Kanagawa Prefecture, on July 9 on a bridge that was rebuilt after it was washed away during a typhoon in October. (Yuta Takahashi)
HAKONE, Kanagawa Prefecture--Hakone Tozan Railway Co. conducted a test run of its mountain trains between Miyanoshita Station and Gora Station here on July 9.
The company had suspended its operations there since a bridge along the route was washed away during Typhoon No. 19 last October.
On July 23, it will resume running trains along the entire line for the first time in about nine months, opening the way to revive the Hakone onsen resort, which has also been hurt by plummeting numbers of tourists due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The train, which had continued to stop at Gora Station after the typhoon, departed the station at 10 a.m. and after passing through Kowakidani Station, cut into the gorge and slowly crossed the new bridge.
To protect the bridge from another landslide, the upper part of the mountain slope where the bridge passes through was covered with cement about 30 meters wide and 50 meters high.
Near the Mount Asamayama railway crossing before Miyanoshita Station, the train rumbled ahead surrounded by hydrangeas in bloom, a common sight along the railway line during rainy season.
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