JR West urged to put more resources into Shinkansen

March 28, 2018

Osaka- A panel of experts has proposed a package of corrective measures in response to the discovery of a crack on the undercarriage of a Shinkansen train of West Japan Railway Co., or JR West, calling on the company, among other things, to put more management resources into the bullet train division.

Noting that JR West's risk awareness was insufficient as no serious Shinkansen accident has occurred in the past, the panel said that the railway operator should modernize its rail yards, expand its Shinkansen fleet, and increase its maintenance workers for the bullet trains and brush up their skills.

In the package, which was announced on Tuesday, the panel, headed by Kansai University Prof. Seiji Abe, also urged the firm to develop a technology to detect abnormalities in train cars.

The crack was found on the undercarriage of one of the 16 cars of the Nozomi No. 34 train bound for Tokyo Station from Hakata Station on the Tokaido-Sanyo Shinkansen line last December.

The Japan Transport Safety Board, an affiliate of the transport ministry, has designated the case as a severe incident that could have led to an accident, the first such designation ever for a Shinkansen train incident.

As inappropriate manufacturing work for the undercarriage has been suspected as the cause of the crack, the experts' panel called on JR West to conduct a comprehensive study from the designing and development stages on how to make train manufacturing, inspections and maintenance easier when introducing new Shinkansen trains.

Receiving the report from the panel, JR West President Tatsuo Kijima said, "We'll make efforts to steadily put the proposals into action."

At a press conference, Abe called for a review to be made about a year later on progress in the implementation of the proposed measures.

Part of the panel's proposals has already been reflected in JR West's safety program. Jiji Press