Heavy snow traps over 400 passengers inside stranded train in Japan

Jan 12, 2018 | News On Japan

Jan 12, 2018 (Kyodo) - Around 430 passengers were forced to stay a night aboard a local train stranded since Thursday evening due to heavy snowfall in Niigata on the Sea of Japan coast.

According to rescue workers, five of them -- a man in his 40s and four women in their teens and 20s -- felt unwell and the man was taken to a hospital. The train resumed service Friday morning about 15 hours after it was stranded, with many passengers exhausted after standing all night in crowded cars.

More than half of the passengers of the four-car train on the East Japan Railway Co.'s Shinetsu Line evacuated earlier in the morning with their families coming to pick them up by car.

While the operator said the train's interior lights and heating system worked properly, it only had one bathroom requiring users to wait in a long queue and toilet paper ran out, according to passengers. Some said they took turns sitting on seats during their prolonged stay.

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