NHK television reported that on the night of August 18, a power cable broke in the west of Tokyo during rush hour, affecting about 79,000 passengers because at least five railway lines had to stop operating for several hours.

Broken train cable paralyzes train lines for hours

The incident occurred at around 7:40 p.m. local time (5:40 p.m. the same day in Vietnam) when a resident of Tachikawa City discovered an electric spark coming from a technical cable box, which supplies electricity and signals for train operations.

Immediately, this information was reported to the Fire Department and by about 10:00 p.m. the same day the problem was resolved.

At least five railway lines in Tachikawa City were paralyzed for several hours, including the entire JR Oume and Itsukaichi lines, and parts of the JR Nanbu, Hachik and Seibu Haijima lines. An estimated 79,000 passengers were affected by the incident, which occurred during peak travel hours.

According to the announcement of East Japan Railway Company, by early this morning, many train lines in western Tokyo had returned to normal operation. The cause of the incident is under investigation.

This is the second time this month that a subway cable has broken in Japan. Previously, on August 4, dozens of subway lines in

Tokyo was also paralyzed for hours when a power cable snapped in Yokohama city, Kanagawa prefecture bordering Tokyo, affecting about 350,000 passengers.

The consecutive incidents are raising public concerns about the maintenance and provision of transportation services by Japan's railway industry.

According to NHK/TTO