Tokyo: It is likely that some of the tens of thousands of passengers Siseen madly after a snake stopped the busiest ball line in Japan.
The sliding reptile of 39 inches slipped into an upper electricity line and became tangled, a spokesman for the line operator, JR Central, to NBC News told NBC. As a result, he shortened the electricity supply and stopped the line between Osaka and Tokyo.
The blackout occurred at 5:26 pm (4:26 am et) and the power was not restored until 7 pm (6 am et), affecting 86 trains, said the spokesman.
Every day, more than 430,000 passengers travel in the Tokaido Shinkansen, a key Japanese rail artery that connects its Tokyo capital with Nagoya and Osaka, according to JR Central.
The bullet trains are known for their speed at 180 miles per hour, and also for their punctuality and the average delay time in the line was 1.6 minutes per train last year, in the 372 trains that operated every day.
“I use Shinkansen several times a month, but this is the first time I experienced suspensions due to a blackout,” said a 46 -year -old Satahi Tagawa passenger, who had to return to Tokyo, to the local media Kyodo News.
“I am relieved,” said Kazutoshi Tachi, 26, after learning that the services had resumed. “But I’m fed up with the problems (with Shinkansen’s services). I want them to run on time.”
The snakes that go to the Shinkansen lines is rare, although it is not the first time this happens. Last year, a 16-inch snake made its way into a passenger carriage on a train along the Tokyo-Nagoya line.
The Central JR spokesman said they had no idea how he got into the carriage.
Arata Yamamoto reported from Tokyo and Mithil Aggarwal informed from Hong Kong.
