Derailed Shinkansen train moved 1 meter off tracks

Acar of the Tohoku Shinkansen bullet train that derailed due to a powerful earthquake in northeastern Japan on March 16 has been found to have moved 1 meter away from the rails because devices to limit its deviation from the tracks did not function properly.

East Japan Railway Co. (JR East) announced March 25 that car No. 6, the 12th car from the front of the Yamabiko 223 bullet train on the Tohoku Shinkansen line, came about 1 meter o the tracks.

All 17 cars of the train were equipped with the L-shaped guides on their wheel hubs to prevent cars from moving too far from the tracks. e guides are meant to catch on the rails if a train car derails, thereby limiting lateral movement. e devices, however, did not function properly for some cars, including car No. 6.

e L-shaped guides are supposed to prevent the body of a train from moving drastically o the tracks. is helps prevent cars from overturning or crashing into trackside walls or other structures.

All but one car of the train le the tracks, and 12 of the cars did not deviate too far from the rails as the devices properly functioned.

But car No. 6 came to a stop with all of the guides o the rails, shi ing about 1 meter toward the oncoming tracks. Some of the guides on cars No. 4, 5 and 17 also did not catch properly on the rails. e very front car, No. 17, moved about 60 centimeters o the rails toward the trackside wall.

While JR East stated that the situation did not pose a serious danger, Kazuhiko Nagase, a visiting professor at Kanazawa Institute of Technology who specializes in railroad system engineering, pointed out the high risk involved in more serious accidents.

“If a car deviates by 1 meter, the risk of a collision increases if an oncoming train passes by. e deviation-prevention function of the L-shaped guides needs to be examined,” he said.

REPAIR WORK UNDER WAY

As it rushes to get its derailed Tohoku Shinkansen back on track, East Japan Railway Co. also needs to address the rami cations of damage in about 1,000 locations to utility poles, rails, viaducts and other items.

e company estimates that the full restoration of the train line, which suffered a derailment in the strong earthquake that hit o the coast of Fukushima Prefecture on March 16, will take at least one month.

e extended suspension of service would mark the longest for JR East since the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, and has prompted the company to urgently review its preparedness in cases of disaster.

e earthquake measured upper 6 on the Japanese seismic intensity scale — which tops out at 7 — causing a Tohoku Shinkansen line train to derail. Train service was suspended on the 350-kilometer stretch of track between Nasu-Shiobara and Morioka and has yet to be fully restored.

According to JR East, the company found about 60 damaged areas in viaducts and other structures, 79 broken utility poles, bending in rails in about 300 spots, and about 550 damaged ttings in overhead wires. All told, about 1,000 places need repair.

Service was resumed in some sections on March 22, but the stretch between Fukushima and Sendai stations will take the longest to restart, with projections at around April 20. is will be the second longest period of suspension a er the 49 days following the Great East Japan Earthquake.

A major cause of the slow restoration is the removal of the derailed train cars to clear the track. Sixteen of the 17 cars derailed in the earthquake, and each needs to be put back on the rails one by one before being towed away. is process alone will take about two weeks, with repairs to surrounding equipment to come even later.

Alternative transportation by air, rail and bus began on March 17, the day after the earthquake, but users have voiced dissatisfaction, given that a er an upper-6 earthquake in the same area in February last year, the Tohoku Shinkansen suspended operations for 11 days.

“It’s a natural disaster so it can’t be helped, but I’d like to see it restored as soon as possible,” a 27-year-old Tokyo man said last week at Haneda Airport, where he was ying to Sendai to help in the cleanup at his family’s house.

In response to the Great East Japan Earthquake, JR East prioritized earthquake-resistance work on major structures such as viaducts and their piers and abutments. So far, work has been completed on about 11,000 viaduct sections and about 700 piers and abutments.

However, much of the damage from both last year’s and last month’s major earthquakes in the Tohoku region was centered on equipment such as utility poles and overhead wire ttings, which were not subject to the earthquake-resistance enhancement work.

In particular, as of the end of March last year, such work had been completed on just over 10% of the 20,000 concrete utility poles on the Tohoku and Joetsu Shinkansen lines. JR East revised its quake-resistance strategy last July, and plans to enhance about 4,000 poles by the end of scal 2027. Still, that would account for only about 30% of the total.

JR East is considering ways to step up the pace, such as by working on poles during the day instead of limiting the task to nighttime. It also plans to introduce special vehicles designed for work on poles later this year.

In addition, the latest disaster a ected some viaducts and utility poles that had undergone quake-resistance work. “We would like to complete the quake-resistance work as soon as possible, as well as

nd ways to limit damage even further in the future,” the company said. (March 27)

By Tomohiro Yamashita Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer