By South China Morning Post | Created at 2025-03-06 15:56:21 | Updated at 2025-03-06 19:16:35
3 hours ago
A bullet train made an emergency stop near a station in Tokyo on Thursday after two cars decoupled, leading to a 3-hour suspension of bullet train services in eastern Japan and raising safety concerns as the incident was the second of its kind for the Tohoku Shinkansen Line in less than six months.
The disconnection involved the Hayabusa and Komachi high-speed trains on the shinkansen line that links Tokyo to northeastern Japan, similar to the previous decoupling in September. No one was injured in the incident.
JR East, which is the only operator that couples trains with different compositions for a shinkansen service, said Thursday it will suspend all coupled shinkansen operations until the cause is determined and countermeasures are in place.
“We take it very seriously that such an incident has occurred again,” Hirohiko Ikeda, a senior JR East official in charge of shinkansen operations, said as he apologised for the inconvenience.
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism determined the case as a “serious incident” and the country’s accident investigation board appointed three investigators.
The Hayabusa-Komachi train service, which consists of two linked trains, decoupled in motion between Ueno and Omiya stations around 11.30am, triggering its automatic braking system.
