Shinkansen makes emergency stop after cars uncouple en route to Tokyo

Oops!

Yikes. Someone will not be getting a positive performance review.

A total of 72 trains on the Tohoku, Yamagata, and Akita Shinkansen lines were canceled and 35 delayed, affecting approximately 45,000 passengers, JR East said.

 I was surprised because this was the first time I had heard that they disconnected

That's Japan inc technology, current day technology.

DCM coming for someone

I think with a perfect safety record after 60 odd years, we can cut them a bit of slack.

Signed, someone who's used to the UK's rail networks.

Nothing like the huge 7 or 8 cm vertical safety RODS with lock pin at one end used in the old days to connect train cars. I have seen the two connected but I have never seen how ? But just by looking at it looks like when you Grip Lock your two hands together at the joint it is huge it is intertwined it looks perfect, but without these rods there is always a risk .

@WoodyLee You can see the two trains connecting and disconnecting in Morioka. Train Otaku love taking photos.

It's been said already, but the trains here are amazing. I am sure that JR will find the cause of the problem and fix it. So glad no one was hurt.

This video shows how they are coupled. The connection looks a a bit flimsy, considering the size of the two objects they are connection... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgXDi1lJonY

This happens at Fukushima Station for the Yamagata Line also.

Hopefully the cause will be quickly identified, rectified and prevented in the future.

"Shinkansen makes emergency stop after cars uncouple en route to Tokyo."

Becareful people out there!!

The safety systems worked and the trains stopped.

@sakurasuki Oh, you're back to criticize anything Japan! Noticed you had nothing to say about the child murdered in China!

That's Japan inc technology, current day technology.

That is correct. The system worked. The train stopped when something went wrong. In another country, the train would have kept on going.

Technology fails. In every domain. In every country. In Japan though, nobody was in any danger, the failsafes were proven to work (although I bet this is the first time they had to work for real) and everybody got to go home unhurt. So far nobody died here because of a failure of the shinkansen system, in many decades of operation. Also, the haven't tried to cover it up (as it happened literally in China, where they tried to bury damaged train cars with bodies still in them).

Move along.

Sakurasuki, you're always so jolly happy whenever anything goes wrong in Japan!

Here, things going wrong in other countries, and how they were handled. See the difference? In Japan nobody died, nobody covered it up:

https://youtu.be/q9Ap0aRUx8E

Technology fails. In every domain

Seems to have succeeded in this case. No one was hurt, and there were no derailments. And people go back and forth throughout the country by the thousands every hour.

Seems this technology is actually extremely successful.

Technology failures happen. There are no exceptions. It unfortunately happened there and the result was partial cancellation of the rides for the day. No derailment, no injuries, no infrastructure or vehicle damage. I would consider that as a win in my book.

 I was surprised because this was the first time I had heard that they disconnected

I was surprised that this was the first accidental disconnection, too. And, that was the first question I had when I started reading the article. I expected that that question would not be answered in the article, and was pleasantly surprised to find that it was answered. If this is indeed the first accidental connection, it explains why so many subsequent trains were cancelled or delayed. A five hour delay is a long time, but a lack of experience with this issue seems to be a reasonable for such a long delay. No one has the experience with coupling the two trains together in the middle of Miyagi prefecture. Not surprised that no one was injured, though, as the trains probably slowed down naturally on the tracks after the disconnection. Hope the power and the air conditioning remained running.

@sakurasuki Your comments are excellent. In fact Japan is not focused on infrastructure technology and development. JR still looks good compared to the UK and the US, but it is getting worse every year.

Especially local JR services. Walk through and marvel at the many decaying, dirty, unpainted local JR stations.

Pray your local train will be on time if you have something important to do. There are more and more delays.

Most of JR's investment goes into the shinkansen lines which serves the percentage of Japanese with higher income.

What is Japan focused on? Expanding the military at the urging of... the American government.

BellflowerToday 04:05 pm JST

What is Japan focused on? Expanding the military at the urging of... the American government.

Japan spends 1.2% of its gdp on the military.

Technology failures happen. There are no exceptions.

You're correct, but your scope is too small. Everything fails. There are no exceptions. It's called entropy - everything degrades.

@Bellflower exactly, there are cost reduction attempt from train company in Japan.

https://japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/editorial/yomiuri-editorial/20240516-186437/

https://dennisamith.com/2022/04/04/the-one-about-jr-east-stations-removing-station-clocks-from-500-stations-within-the-next-ten-years/