Bullet train makes departure, mistakenly leaves 200 passengers behind on platform

[gmat]

From Sora News24. Originally from Huffington Post Japan.

Bullet train makes departure, mistakenly leaves 200 passengers behind on platform

https://en.rocketnews24.com/2017/12/18/bullet-train-makes-departure-mistakenly-leaves-200-passengers-behind-on-platform/

Original HuffPost in Japanese.

http://www.huffingtonpost.jp/2017/12/14/kodama-nagoya_a_23308062/

 

Saw this a couple days ago.

Glass shattered by stone on JR trains two nights in a row- Musashino Line

https://japantoday.com/category/crime/glass-shattered-by-stone-on-jr-trains-two-nights-in-a-row

 

Grant

[katoftw]

A bit of a non story isn't it.  It really didn't leave them behind.  Cos it only got 20m up the track before returning to its correct position for boarding.

[gmat]

True, but interesting to know. Not meant to show disrespect.

Grant

[Kiha66]

The report of the station attendant hitting the emergency stop confused me, wouldn't that stop all trains in the surrounding area?  Seems like the delay on multiple lines would cause a bigger issue than the one missed train.

[westfalen]

I have a feeling we are not getting all the facts.

 

The conductor gets ok to depart from platform staff, checks all persons on platform are clear of train, closes doors, watches and checks that doors actually close as does platform staff (surely at this point it would be noticed that the doors were already closed), gives 'right away' signal to driver. All these checks and more all accompanied by copious amounts of pointing and waving.

 

Not saying it didn't happen but I don't see how giving the method of railway operations in Japan.

 

This is a translation of the report in the Yomiuri Shimbun online.

 

The Tokaido road Shinkansen Nagoya from Tokyo to "echo 684 issue" (16 cars) found that still do not carry about 200 passengers waited at Nagoya Station, 13, had left.

Said employee noticed right away, back home until the train carrying tourists.

From 8:31 PM on the same day as before according to the JR Tokaido Shinkansen problem leaves from Nagoya Station to the door opening into passengers in the car. Employee emergency stop in the emergency button for about 20 meters back, back home. Conductors typically ride three also only one person did not ride it.

 

They way I read this is that the train did not leave all the intending passengers behind but only 200 who were a group of tourists who may have been slow to get organised or to realise this was their train. With 200 panicking tourists probably rushing the train as it was starting to move I have no doubt one of the platform staff pushed the emergency button.

[Kiha66]

Thanks westfalen, that makes a lot more sense.

[railsquid]

I haven't seen the Yomiuri article, but going by the HuffPost one and this Asahi one, there's no mention of tourists, just passengers. Methinks the machine translation is a bit off.

 

However what's not mentioned in the Rocket News article and badly mangled by the machine translation ("Conductors typically ride three also only one person did not ride it") is that two of the train conductors were also left behind on the platform, which I imagine is a problem in itself.

[kvp]

A few assumptions/ideas:

-the driver didn't wait for the conductor signal, just checked the door indicator (this could happen if late and boarding in the last minute, both at a terminus and at a crew change location)

-the platform staff who pushed stop so fast could be one of the conductors left on the platform (like: stop, that's my train)

[westfalen]

All possible I suppose but from many occasions watching the almost military precision of operations at Nagoya's Shinkansen platforms, especially crew changes (they rival the changing of the guard at the unknown soldier memorial at Arlington) it just boggles the mind that it could happen.

[katoftw]

It may be completely different that what is described in the articles.  I've noticed recently that a lot of Japan-to-English journalism had be poorly translated recently in an attempt to be the first to deliver the news.

[westfalen]

Not to mention most journalist's encyclopaedic knowledge of railways.