All Kyushu Shinkansen Sections Reopened after July Kumamoto Quake

Yatsushiro, Kumamoto Pref., Sept. 18 (Jiji Press)--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 in the Kyushu southwestern Japan region and Kagoshima-Chuo Station in Kagoshima Prefecture in the same region 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, located between Fukuoka and Kagoshima.

Kyushu Railway Co., or JR Kyushu, the operator of the Shinkansen line, said that trains will travel on a reduced speed of 70 kilometers per hour on a section of about 10 km 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 in the Honshu main island of Japan will be reduced by 10 pct 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.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]