THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
January 23, 2024 at 18:29 JST
Services on three Shinkansen lines in central and eastern Japan were suspended on Jan. 23 after a power outage occurred, triggered by loose overhead wires, forcing many passengers to walk to stations.
Two workers were reportedly electrocuted while working on the wires and were taken to a hospital emergency room where they were conscious.
The outage occurred at around 9:58 a.m. between Ueno and Oyama stations on the Tohoku Shinkansen Line, and between Ueno and Kumagaya stations on the Joetsu and Hokuriku Shinkansen Lines.
According to East Japan Railway Co. (JR East), operations were suspended on both the inbound and outbound lines of the Tohoku Shinkansen between Tokyo and Sendai stations, the Joetsu Shinkansen between Tokyo and Niigata stations, and the Hokuriku Shinkansen between Tokyo and Nagano stations.
JR East has resumed operations in some sections.
However, the company decided to suspend services between Tokyo and Sendai stations and between Tokyo and Takasaki stations for the day.
The company said that overhead wires were found to be sagging on the inbound line in Saitama’s Chuo Ward, impairing operations.
There were reports of sounds of an explosion and smoke rising during the repair work. According to sources, two workers were injured.
According to JR East, the workers received an electric shock near the site and were transported to a hospital.
The company said it is expected to take considerable time before operations fully resume.
According to JR East, four bullet trains were stopped between stations after the outage.
One was an inbound Shinkansen, which was halted near Saitama’s Chuo Ward.
At around 1 p.m., about three hours after the outage occurred, the evacuation of passengers began from the train. Passengers used emergency stairs to climb down to the ground and walk to a nearby train station.
(This article was written by Ayateru Hosozawa and Shun Noguchi.)
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Passengers are seen evacuating from a Shinkansen stopped due to a power outage in Saitama’s Chuo Ward on Jan. 23. (Masaaki Kobayashi)
