JR East will gradually resume coupled operations of the Tohoku Shinkansen, Yamagata Shinkansen, and Akita Shinkansen from March 14.
The coupled operations were halted after the coupling section detached while the “Hayabusa-Komachi 21” was traveling between Ueno and Omiya stations on March 6, triggering automatic braking and a stop. During the vehicle inspection of the Komachi immediately after the incident, repeated detachment motions of the coupler were observed, indicating a likely electrical anomaly during coupled running. This is under investigation by the Japan Transport Safety Board.
Until the cause is identified, mechanical devices will be installed at Fukushima Station and Morioka Station during coupling operations to fix the mechanism and prevent detachment actions in case of an electrical anomaly. A test run to verify these countermeasures will be conducted on March 12. The target is all 95 sets of JR East and all 3 sets of JR Hokkaido that perform coupled operations.
With this, coupled operations will gradually resume from March 14, and regular schedules are expected to be maintained from March 15. Reserved seat tickets for operations from March 15 to 31 will be on sale from 6 a.m. on March 13, and for operations from April 1 onwards, from 6 a.m. on March 14.
Notice
This article was generated using automatic translation by GPT-4 API. The translation may not be accurate.
