A sudden power failure in Tokyo’s railway network brought the morning commute to a standstill Friday, affecting approximately 673,000 passengers and exposing vulnerabilities in one of the world’s most advanced transit systems.
According to East Japan Railway Company (JR East), services on the Yamanote and Keihin-Tohoku lines, two of Tokyo’s busiest routes, were almost entirely halted for up to nine hours after an overnight maintenance procedure at Tamachi Station failed.
Smoke was reported from an electrical transformer, and a minor fire broke out but was extinguished within half an hour.
In an unusual scene for Japan, hundreds of passengers were forced to evacuate a stranded train by walking along the tracks under the supervision of railway staff and firefighters.
Crowds swelled at major stations, with thousands waiting in long queues for limited replacement transport options, compounding the chaos during peak commuting hours.
The Yamanote Line serves as a critical loop linking Tokyo’s key business and commercial districts, including Shinjuku, Shibuya, Tokyo, and Ueno, while the Keihin-Tohoku Line connects Tokyo with Yokohama and Saitama, making the disruption particularly widespread.
JR East has launched an urgent technical investigation to determine the precise causes of the outage and pledged to review maintenance protocols, inspection systems, and early warning measures to prevent similar incidents.
The company also apologized to commuters and announced partial compensation under existing regulations.
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