Metal Fragments Likely Led to Shinkansen Uncoupling

   Tokyo, Sept. 26 (Jiji Press)--Metal fragments that made their way behind a switch in the driver's cabin are likely to have caused an unprecedented decoupling of a connected Shinkansen bullet train in operation earlier this month, East Japan Railway Co., or JR East, said Thursday.
   Announcing the discovery of the metal fragments at a press conference in Tokyo, JR East said that the objects caused electricity to flow in a section different from a normal route, leading to the separation of the coupling equipment that had connected 10 Hayabusa and seven Komachi cars of the Hayabusa-Komachi No. 6 train on the Tohoku Shinkansen line in the Sept. 19 incident. The switch in question is used to redo a train coupling.
   Shortly after 8 a.m. that day, the coupling equipment for the 10-car Hayabusa No. 6 train and the seven-car Komachi No. 6 train came undone when the Tokyo-bound Hayabusa-Komachi No. 6 train was traveling at a speed of about 315 kilometers per hour between Furukawa and Sendai stations, both in Miyagi Prefecture, one of the six prefectures comprising the Tohoku northeastern Japan region. The Hayabusa and Komachi trains made emergency stops soon after that.
   This was the first time since JR East started operations of connected Shinkansen trains in 1992 that coupling equipment for such a train has detached while it was traveling, according to the company.

(2024/09/26-18:39)

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