Trial Train Run Starts at Disaster-Struck Line in Fukushima

Tomioka, Fukushima Pref., Sept. 14 (Jiji Press)--East Japan Railway Co. <9020>, or JR East, started trial train operations on Thursday in a Joban Line section in Fukushima Prefecture, northeastern Japan, that had been closed due to the March 2011 earthquake-tsunami disaster and the subsequent nuclear accident. In the 6.9-kilometer section between Tomioka Station in the town of Tomioka and Tatsuta Station in the town of Naraha, the first train arrived at Tomioka Station around 10 a.m. (1 a.m. GMT). JR East plans to resume commercial operations in the section on Oct. 21 after a one-month trial. An evacuation advisory following the triple meltdown accident at Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc.'s <9501> disaster-stricken Fukushima No. 1 power plant was lifted for most of Tomioka on April 1 this year. But only 215 people, or 1.6 pct of all residents in the town, had returned home as of Aug. 1. A massive number of large bags filled with soil from decontamination work in areas contaminated by radioactive substances after the nuclear accident are piled up near the railway line section in the town. The Tomioka-Tatsuta section runs near TEPCO's Fukushima No. 2 nuclear power plant. Train operations on the Joban Line have been restarted in stages. In April, the section between Odaka Station in the city of Minamisoma and Namie Station in the town of Namie, both in Fukushima, was reopened. JR East hopes to resume services in the remaining 20.8-kilometer section between Namie and Tomioka stations by the end of March 2020, for the full reopening of the Joban Line, which connects Tokyo and Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture, the main city in the Tohoku northeastern region. Most of the Namie-Tomioka section is located in highly contaminated areas where residents' return home has been deemed difficult for many years after the nuclear accident. END