Yesterday's power outage event on a shinkansen traveling north from Tokyo led to the cancellation of about 280 other shinkansens in eastern and central Japan and affected about 120,000 people, the operator estimated.
JR East said it would carry out remedial work to resume normal shinkansen service by Thursday, although it had already decided to cancel one flight on the Tohoku and Yamagata lines during the morning period.
According to local police: during the traffic restoration work, two men involved in the repair work were taken to hospital after an explosion near where the wire broke. One of them has severe burns to many parts of his body and the other has burnt hands. However, it is noted that none of the injuries sustained are life-threatening. JR East reported that one of the repair workers was electrocuted.
Approximately 350 passengers had left the train and were safely evacuated to the ground using emergency ladders by 13:30. The operator noted that no passengers were injured and there were no complaints of health problems.
