Tokyo’s Yamanote Line Temporarily Halted on Power Outage

Tokyo, Jan. 16 (Jiji Press)–East Japan Railway Co.’s busy Yamanote Line in Tokyo was halted on all sections for about eight hours on Friday because of a predawn power outage, affecting around 673,000 people. With the service disruption hitting morning rush hour, affected stations were packed with many commuters and others. Services of the loop line in both directions were suspended from the day’s first trains due to the outage, which happened between Shinbashi and Shinagawa stations, according to the firm, better known as JR East. It said that a malfunction occurred in an electrical safety device installed for improvement work at Tamachi Station, causing the power outage. Services were completely suspended also for the Keihin-Tohoku Line, which shares some sections with the Yamanote Line. Train operations resumed at 12:40 p.m. for the counterclockwise service of the Yamanote Line and at 1:08 p.m. in the opposite direction, while Keihin-Tohoku Line services restarted at 12:45 p.m. The power outage was discovered around 3:50 a.m., JR East said. According to police and fire authorities, there was a report shortly before 8 a.m. that a fire had broken out from safety equipment. The blaze was extinguished about an hour and a half later. The firm said that smoke was discharged during a test run of power transmission as part of efforts to resume Yamanote Line operations. Apologizing for the operation suspension, a JR East official said, “We’ll identify the cause as soon as possible and work on preventative measures to regain trust.” END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]