TOKYO – A Tohoku Shinkansen bullet train made an emergency stop near Tokyo on Aug 24 after its safety brakes were automatically activated, halting services for nearly three hours, JR East said.
A bullet train travelling between Omiya and Oyama stations with 560 passengers on board stopped at around 2.10pm in Kuki, Saitama Prefecture. There were no reports of injuries.
Services in both directions between Tokyo and Morioka in Iwate prefecture, north-eastern Japan, fully resumed around 5pm.
JR East is investigating the cause of the incident, suspecting the emergency brakes were triggered by a malfunction onboard.
The Tohoku Shinkansen Line has been plagued by issues recently, including the
decoupling of two carriages
last September on a train travelling between Furukawa and Sendai stations.
In March, there was
another decoupling
between Ueno and Omiya stations.
In June, a series of failures occurred with power supply devices in the latest series of the Tohoku and Yamagata Shinkansen lines, resulting in a significant reduction in the number of trains on the Yamagata Shinkansen for around a month and a half.
On Aug 22, an oil leak was discovered on a bullet train used for construction, disrupting services on part of the Tohoku line for around an hour. KYODO NEWS
