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320,000 Affected As Tokyo Trains Disrupted Over Track Trouble

Posted on: Tuesday, 25 April 2006, 15:00 CDT

By Kyodo News International, Tokyo

Apr. 24--TOKYO -- Train services on Tokyo's Yamanote loop lines, which connect major city centers in Tokyo, were suspended for more than five hours due to an abnormality found on the tracks at around 10:30 a.m. Monday, according to East Japan Railway Co.

Some 320,000 passengers were affected as about 400 train runs on the Yamanote and two other JR lines were suspended. About 2,000 passengers on one stranded Yamanote Line train had to walk about 600 meters along the tracks to the nearest JR station at Takadanobaba.

The operations were resumed at 4:10 p.m., JR East said.

A track inspection found a 25-meter-long section had risen about 600 meters south of the JR Takadanobaba station on the Yamanote Line track and Saikyo Line track, which is also used by Shonan Shinjuku Line trains. Five of the passengers became sick, the company said.

Some of the tracks had risen up to about five centimeters, the train operator said, adding the abnormality may have been caused by construction work on a road that runs below the tracks which started from around 8:30 a.m. on Monday.

A driver of one train reported to JR East's control room that the train felt abnormally shaky when it was running in the area at about 10:30 a.m.

JR East suspended operations for checks on all services on both the inner and outer loops on the Yamanote Line, as well as the Osaki-Omiya portion of the Saikyo and Shonan Shinjuku lines.

Shonan Shinjuku Line train services, connecting Omiya in Saitama Prefecture and Ofuna in Kanagawa Prefecture passing through Tokyo's city center, will be suspended during the day, JR East said. Train services on the Saikyo Line were resumed late Monday afternoon.

In February, an abnormality on the Yamanote Line tracks was found between Shimbashi and Hamamatsucho stations due to an error in similar construction work which was under way below the tracks.

Koichi Yoshida, head of JR East's Construction Department, told a press conference, "We apologize for causing (such) incidents twice over a short time period." The company will suspend construction at the site "for the time being," he said.

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Copyright (c) 2006, Kyodo News International, Tokyo

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9020,

Source: Kyodo News International, Tokyo

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