Yatsushiro, Kumamoto Pref. – A section on the Kyushu Shinkansen bullet train line that had been halted due to the impact of a major earthquake in Kumamoto Prefecture in late July returned to service on Friday. All sections on the high-speed train line linking Hakata Station in Fukuoka Prefecture and Kagoshima-Chuo Station in Kagoshima Prefecture are now back to operations 52 days after the July 28 temblor, which measured up to 7, the highest level, on Japan’s seismic intensity scale. Restarted on Friday was the section between Kumamoto and Shin-Minamata stations, both in Kumamoto Prefecture.
Kyushu Railway, or JR Kyushu, the operator of the line, said that trains will travel at a reduced speed of 70 kph on a section of about 10 kilometers near Shin-Yatsushiro Station, located between Kumamoto and Shin-Minamata stations, for the time being to ensure safe operations. The section sustained heavy damage from the earthquake. Therefore, the number of the trains linking Kagoshima-Chuo and the Sanyo Shinkansen line will be reduced by 10% from the normal level.
As the travel time between Kumamoto and Kagoshima-Chuo stations will be about eight minutes longer, the departure time at Kagoshima-Chuo will be moved up by up to nine minutes. At Shin-Yatsushiro Station on Friday, passengers formed a long line from slightly after 6 a.m., waiting for the day’s first trains. A 53-year-old male corporate worker from the city of Yatsushiro who commutes to the city of Minamata said: “The reopening (of the section between Kumamoto and Shin-Minamata stations) was earlier than I had expected.
I’d like to express gratitude to those who worked hard for the restoration.” One 17-year-old local student is using the line as an alternative route for commuting to the city of Kumamoto, where his high school is, because a train line he regularly uses is still being halted due to the impact of the quake. He said that he now leaves his home 30 minutes later than usual. The Kyushu Shinkansen line was halted on all sections after the earthquake.
Services between Hakata and Kumamoto stations were resumed July 31, three days after the quake. The section between Shin-Minamata and Kagoshima-Chuo was reopened Aug. 7 while the number of trains in operation was reduced. Operations between Kumamoto and Shin-Minamata stations had remained suspended, however, due to damage, including rail distorti.
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