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There have been a series of incidents that are undermining trust in the railway system. Is safety awareness in the railway business becoming lax? East Japan Railway Co. (JR East) and other railway companies should carry out a full inspection of safety measures related to their operations.
On Thursday, the Hayabusa-Komachi No. 21 combined train from Tokyo that was bound for Shin-Aomori and Akita stations on the Tohoku Shinkansen line decoupled. The incident occurred while the train was running between Ueno and Omiya stations and it came to an emergency stop.
Although no injuries were reported among the about 640 passengers, many other Shinkansen services were cancelled or delayed, affecting about 150,000 people. JR East has said that it will suspend operations of coupled trains until the cause of the incident is identified.
The Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Ministry has designated the case a serious incident that could have led to an accident. This is the first time a Shinkansen incident was designated as such since a 2017 case involving a Nozomi train, which was found to have a crack in its bogie.
A sudden decoupling of a moving Shinkansen train, which transports many passengers at high speeds, should never occur. If things had gone just a bit worse, the decoupling could have ended up causing a major accident. The government and JR East need to thoroughly investigate the cause.
What is especially serious is that a coupler malfunction caused another moving Hayabusa-Komachi train to separate in September last year.
At that time, JR East announced that metal fragments, which appeared to be shavings from a manufacturing process, had gotten into the separation switch in the driver’s cab, causing it to malfunction. Metal fragments were found in 10 of the 96 combined Shinkansen trains. JR East said the fragments had been removed and measures had been taken to prevent a recurrence.
The combined train in the latest case was also inspected at the time. So why did a similar incident occur just six months later? JR East views the cause of the latest case to be a malfunction of an electric system, a different factor from the September case. However, it is reasonable for the company to be criticized due to the inadequate previous investigation.
In the railway industry, there have been a spate of problematic cases that have undermined trust. In July last year, a Japan Freight Railway Co. train derailed in Yamaguchi, and it was determined that an axle of one of the cars had broken.
After this accident, the ministry investigated railway operators across the country, discovering that 50 out of 156 companies had falsified records in relation to the installation of wheels and axles. JR Freight was issued a business improvement order.
In November, a freight train derailed in Hokkaido, and Hokkaido Railway Co. announced that the rails had corroded. Concerns have arisen that a trend of neglecting safety is spreading throughout the industry.
The technical capabilities of Japan’s railway industry are highly regarded around the world. This reputation could be shaken.
Is the industry filled with a sense of hubris? Is too much emphasis being placed on efficiency and cost, putting unreasonable strain on the frontline workforce? Railway companies need to conduct thorough checks. It must not be forgotten that the foundation of the railway business is safety.
