Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012

Snow fell in and around Tokyo from Monday night through early Tuesday and stuck for the first time this season, disrupting rail and road traffic and causing people to injure themselves in falls.

Winter walk: A woman steps carefully on a snow-covered street in front of JR Shinbashi Station in Minato Ward, Tokyo, on Tuesday morning. KYODO

As of 10 a.m., 53 people had been taken to hospitals by ambulance in Tokyo, the fire department said.

East Japan Railway Co. temporarily suspended some services on the Hachiko Line linking Hachioji in western Tokyo with the city of Takasaki, Gunma Prefecture, as ice-covered wires failed to transmit electricity to trains at Hachioji Station.

Trains on the Togane Line in Chiba Prefecture came to a halt due to pantograph problems, while those on the Keiyo Line that links the Tokyo terminal station with the city of Chiba were suspended due to switch point troubles at a rail yard in Chiba.

Odakyu Electric Railway Co., a major carrier linking Tokyo's Shinjuku Station with the cities of Odawara and Fujisawa in Kanagawa Prefecture, suspended its Romance Car limited express trains between Shinjuku and the Hakone hot springs resort and the Enoshima seaside resort.

Traffic was halted temporarily in some parts of the capital's Metropolitan Expressway network and on a section between Kanagawa Prefecture and the Hachioji junction on the Chuo Expressway, which links Tokyo with Nagoya via Nagano Prefecture.

The Meteorological Agency said snow accumulation reached 6 cm in the city of Tsukuba, Ibaraki Prefecture, 5 cm in Sagamihara, Kanagawa Prefecture, and 1 cm in central Tokyo and Chiba as of 5 a.m. Tuesday.

It measured 4 cm in central Tokyo at one point late Monday evening.

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