Three railways have signed a deal with a state research institute to implement a system to halt shinkansen trains more swiftly in the event of a major offshore quake near the Japanese archipelago.
The emergency stop signals of the new system, to be introduced Wednesday on certain sections of the Tohoku and Joetsu Shinkansen lines operated by East Japan Railway Co., activate 10 to 30 seconds faster than the current system by utilizing seismic data captured by a quake sensor on the Pacific seafloor, the railroads and institute said Monday.
JR East, Central Japan Railway Co. (JR Tokai) and West Japan Railway Co. agreed with the National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Resilience on data distribution for railway safety to prevent disasters involving bullet trains, following a series of powerful earthquakes since the massive March 2011 quake in the country's northeast.