Society

Quake-damaged Tohoku Shinkansen line resumes full operations

Apr 14 (NHK) - The operator of a Shinkansen bullet train service in northeastern Japan resumed full operations on Thursday after a strong earthquake hit the region last month.

Some sections of the Tohoku Shinkansen line were damaged and a train was derailed by the magnitude 7.4 quake on March 16.

A business traveler at Tokyo Station expressed relief and asked the operator to advance measures against earthquakes, saying he understands the difficulties of dealing with natural disasters.

Around 1,000 locations on the line were damaged by the quake. East Japan Railway Company, or JR East, focused on the minimum necessary repairs to fully resume operations before the national holidays in early May.

JR East says equipment for reducing vibrations has not been fully checked or adjusted on the most severely damaged sections. The operator also says it is using 80 to 90 percent of its usual number of trains, and they are running at slower speeds on some sections.

JR East says the speed regulation is adding more than 30 minutes to the usual travel time between Tokyo and Sendai. It aims to restore normal services as soon as possible after the holiday season.

Source: ANNnewsCH

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