Tokaido Shinkansen line back in service after major disruption

The Yomiuri Shimbun

15:27 JST, December 19, 2022

The Tokaido Shinkansen line resumed regular operation from the first train Monday, after it was suspended for about four hours due to a power outage on Sunday afternoon.

The outage occurred at around 1 p.m. Sunday in a section between Toyohashi and Nagoya stations. According to Central Japan Railway Co. (JR Tokai), 74 Shinkansen trains were suspended on both inbound and outbound lines. A total of 114 trains were delayed for up to 4½ hours, affecting about 110,000 passengers.

JR Tokai turned train cars into hotels at Tokyo, Nagoya and Shin-Osaka stations for passengers who could not make it to their destinations because of the disrupted timetables. About 950 passengers spent the night in the “train hotels.”

The power outage is believed to have been caused by a break in the line suspending the trolley wires that supply power to trains in Anjo, Aichi Prefecture. No abnormality was found during an inspection in April. The company is investigating the cause of the wire breakage.