Many shinkansen services between Tokyo and stations in eastern and central Japan were suspended Tuesday due to a power outage, with their operator saying services will not restart soon.
The outage, which began around 10 a.m., affected sections of the Tohoku, Joetsu and Hokuriku bullet train lines, East Japan Railway said.
The issue was blamed on an overhead electrical wire that was found hanging down on the bullet train tracks in one location in Saitama Prefecture, the company said.
Services have been suspended between Tokyo and Sendai stations on the Tohoku line, Tokyo and Echigo-Yuzawa on the Joetsu line, and Tokyo and Nagano on the Hokuriku line, it said.
A bullet train was forced to stop between stations in Saitama, with its passengers taken to track level and then guided to the ground using emergency stairs.
In Sendai, people queued to speak with station staff after announcements about major delays were made.
“There’s nothing we can do,” said Ryuji Sekine, 33, who was in Sendai for a business trip from Tokyo and planned to go on to Niigata Prefecture. “If services are suspended in the afternoon, then I’ll have no choice but to stay in Sendai tonight.”
A 68-year-old woman from Sendai said after arriving in Tokyo that her train had stopped just before Omiya Station in Saitama and “didn’t move for about 30 minutes.”
“The train eventually made it to Omiya and I ended up taking a conventional line service to Tokyo. … Now my plans are thrown off,” she said.