Trouble hits bullet train ticket machines

Feb 15 (NHK) - Bullet train ticket machines have stopped working in many parts of Japan.

Japan Railway companies reported the trouble involving Shinkansen ticket machines in eastern and western Japan and Kyushu in the southwest.

Customers have not been able to buy Tokaido Shinkansen tickets at machines in Nagoya and Shin-Yokohama stations since Friday morning.

Central Japan Railway said machines went down when customers tried to buy round-trip tickets for non-reserved seats.

Similar disruptions were reported at stations of East Japan, West Japan and Kyushu Railway companies.

Central Japan Railway says its personnel are dealing with customers at ticket counters. It also says it has resumed sales of one-way tickets at machines by resetting their system to keep customers from buying round-trip tickets for now.

The system's operator, Railway Information Systems Company, says its program was altered early Friday morning while updating information such as station names before a train timetable revision next month. It says the system change may have led to the trouble, and that the firm is trying to find out the cause.

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