A large snake tangled in the electric cables for Japan’s Shinkansen—the bullet trains—snarled rail traffic for 90 minutes last week, with delays that stretched out for hours.
The events were not as dramatic as in the famous movie with the name that rhymes, but the effects on Japanese rail operations were far-reaching when the snake caused an electrical fault that called a halt on the Tokaido line, where the 285 km/h trains usually run every few minutes. About 432,000 passengers a day ride 372 trains on the line.
While the trains were out of service, crowds of backed-up passengers formed at stations along the line, asking why the trains weren’t running. When service resumed, it took several hours to get the backed-up crowds to their destinations.
