Hayabusa And Komachi Connections Released, Tohoku Shinkansen Service Was Stopped

Shinkansen Hayabusa and Komachi. (Wikimedia Commons/Nanashinodensyaku)

JAKARTA - Tohoku Shinkansen service between Tokyo Station and Shin-Aomori was stopped for five hours on Thursday morning, after the two connected trains were released.

The Japanese Railway East operator said a partner on the train with 17 carriages bound for Tokyo was released while between Furukawa and Sendai stations in Miyagi Prefecture shortly after 08:00 a.m., quoted from NHK September 19.

The cooperating tool connects Komachi from Akita, which has seven carriages with about 120 people on board and Hayabusa from Morioka who owns 10 carriages, with about 200 people on board.

Quoted from Kyodo News, the two trains were connected at the Morioka station and were heading to Tokyo when the connection was released.

The operator said there were no injuries. All passengers have remained on the train since the incident until they can get off at Sendai station about five hours later.

Takagi Ryo, professor at Kogakuin University, said it was natural to think of a device that was accidentally activated when the train was traveling. This means the two trains are finally separated.

Later, Japan Railway East said services on the Shinkansen Tohoku route had returned to service after the morning events.

The train returned to operation at around 13:10 after completing inspections of the Hayabusa and Komachi trains at the location and moving them to Sendai Station.

Quoting Redigest, the Shinkansen Komachi and Shinkansen Hayabusa are two different services. The COMachi that serves the Tokyo-Akita relationship uses a series of E6 shinkansen series. While Hayabusa which serves the Tokyo-Shin-Hokodate-Hokuto route uses the E5 and H5 series.

The two relations departed simultaneously from Tokyo, before separating at Morioka Station. The opposite journey is the same, the two separate trains, combined at Morioka Station.