Photo/Illutration An announcement at Tokyo Station informs Tohoku Shinkansen passengers of a suspension of service at 9:30 a.m. on April 2. (Kenichiro Shino)

Tohoku Shinkansen services between Tokyo and Sendai were suspended in both directions from around 7:50 a.m. on April 2, inconveniencing thousands of passengers traveling for work or pleasure.

Full service resumed on all lines at around 12:30 p.m. with some delays and cancellations of trains, according to East Japan Railway Co.

The cause was blamed on an oil leak from a track inspection vehicle.

The leak was discovered at around 5:05 a.m. on the section of track between Fukushima and Shiroishizao.

To clean the oil, services on the outbound line between Fukushima and Sendai were suspended from around 7 a.m., and both inbound and outbound lines between Tokyo and Sendai were suspended from around 7:50 a.m.

Services on the Yamagata Shinkansen between Tokyo and Fukushima were also suspended on both lines, with a total of 18 trains canceled as of 10 a.m.

At around 9:30 a.m., a line of people formed at the ticket windows at JR Tokyo Station to request refunds.

Takanobu Miyamoto, a 72-year-old resident of Chiba, was planning to travel to Fukushima with his two railway-loving grandchildren.

"We are very disappointed because we have been looking forward to this trip for over a month," Miyamoto said.

Jeff Brand, a 37-year-old company executive from Uenohara, Yamanashi Prefecture, was scheduled to head to Morioka on a business trip with two colleagues.

"I didn't think it would be stopped for this long," Brand said.

(This article was written by Kentaro Uechi and Kenichiro Shino.)

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