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JR East train travels 48 kms with door open

35 Comments

JR East said Friday that a train in Funabashi, Chiba prefecture, traveled 48 kilometers with one carriage door open after a cord from a passenger's rucksack became stuck in the mechanism and prevented it from closing.

According to NTV, the unusual incident on the Keiyo Line prompted JR East to continue to operate the train with its door open in an attempt to minimize disruption and delays. The door was covered with a curtain and a JR East employee was ordered to ride in the carriage and ensure passengers' safety.

The train ran 48 kilometers between Chiba and Tokyo, reaching a maximum speed of 100 kph. No injuries were reported.

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35 Comments
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Wow, an outbreak of common sense occurred!

12 ( +16 / -4 )

what is 48 kms?

-5 ( +6 / -11 )

@Dennis: that is 265 mls :P

a JR East employee was ordered to ride in the carriage

"Hey the door cant close, so please stand in front of it so people dont get sucked out."

-4 ( +0 / -4 )

Presumably "open" means "not fully closed". I agree, a sensible decision to continue with the journey.

5 ( +8 / -3 )

what is 48 kms?

It is 14,400 尺.

2 ( +7 / -5 )

At least no one got hurt! JR employee dealing with a problem and not sitting and waiting till the bosses decide what to do. Good job!!!

4 ( +6 / -2 )

48 km/s is pretty fast.

-4 ( +5 / -9 )

traveled 48 kilometers with one carriage door open after a cord from a passenger’s rucksack became stuck in the mechanism and prevented it from closing.

People who use rucksacks are generally oblivious to how much of an annoyance they are. I hope this one learned.

The door was covered with a curtain and a JR East employee was ordered to ride in the carriage and ensure passengers’ safety.

A curtain?!?

The train ran 48 kilometers between Chiba and Tokyo, reaching a maximum speed of 100 kph. No injuries were reported.

So, you can run the Keiyo line at 100kph, with one of the doors open, but whenever the wind gets any stronger than a seagull fart you stop service?

-9 ( +5 / -14 )

48 km/s is pretty fast.

Its 100km/hr...and a really dumb and irresponsible move by JR

-19 ( +0 / -18 )

saw the news on tv...

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

saw this on the news this morning. The door was fully open and there was a JR employee holding something like a yellow curtain covering the middle portion of the door while the train is moving. The top/bottom of the door is still open and there are still passengers on that part of the train. I dont think it was rush hour though when it happened. Here is the video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jDcb_rDrIA

0 ( +2 / -2 )

Nearly 30min? too scary and too risky, definitely an irresponsible move by JR.

-9 ( +0 / -9 )

Good to see they kept it moving.

2 ( +4 / -2 )

48 km/s is pretty fast.

Yeah - works out to 172,800 km/h. Now I am starting to believe that leaving the door open at that speed was irresponsible.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

People it traveled 48 km (30miles) at the maximum speed of 100 kph (62mph). The opening was covered, and they placed an employee inside for safety and security. It was a good decision to keep the train running without delay.

2 ( +5 / -3 )

Good that they didn't stop the train but it might have made more sense to simply move all the passengers to the other carriages. Standing next to an open door at 100km/h with a plastic curtain flapping around doesn't sound like much fun.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

What an unusual case of common sense. I remember being stuck at a station on the Keiyo line for maybe an hour one time. The reason was, so I was told by the driver, a wind meter had broken and they could not proceed until they confirmed the wind was not dangerous and it was safe to do so.

That night there was no wind.

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

I see at least half of you say this was reasonable.

Personally, I think if it was a gap, sure by my count. Wide open ... seems a bit risky.

It is a good operational move, but it does compromise on safety. Would you keep your tone if an accident DID happen?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

My initial reaction was whoopty-doo. No big deal....then I watched the video.

The train was crowded enough that there were still people in that middle section right in front of the curtain....literally, a curtain. The Keiyo line can get bumpy in some spots...if anybody had tripped or lost their balance, that would be the end of them. Running with the door open is no big deal. But JR was negligent for not moving people at least a few meters away from the door.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

48 kms (means 29.8 miles, not [kps] kilometers per second -- that would be 107,373 mph -- a little beyond even the Shinkansen, never mind the Keiyo Line), and 100kph (kilometers per hour) is 62.1 mph (miles per hour). So, a train traveled for approximately 30 miles at a top speed of approximately 62 mph, with an open door that was guarded by and employee — so where's the story?

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

@philsandoz,

48 kms (means 29.8 miles, not [kps] kilometers per second -- that would be 107,373 mph -- a little beyond even the Shinkansen, never mind the Keiyo Line), and 100kph (kilometers per hour) is 62.1 mph (miles per hour). So, a train traveled for approximately 30 miles at a top speed of approximately 62 mph, with an open door that was guarded by and employee — so where's the story?

Actually, here's an American telling you that what those SMART people were referring to is that there's no plural to the SI symbol for kilometer.

Symbols of units do not have a plural form; e.g., "25 kg", not "25 kgs".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SI#General_rules

The headline should have read that the door was open for 48 km. The closest thing you get to with "kms" is "km/s" - kilometers per second, but the mathematical symbol is missing.

So... which are you? Dumb or American?

4 ( +5 / -1 )

I cant even imagine why this is News, If I go to the street right now it wont be more than 5 minutes until I see a Bus with someone in the door with half of his body outside while the bus goes cornering in the street. Ive even seen Bus drivers cornering like mad drinking beer. Like I said, Its not big deal. Not even small.

-3 ( +0 / -3 )

Im glad they handled the situation well. Technical difficulties happen so its always nice to be prepared. Im also grateful no one was hurt

0 ( +0 / -0 )

My initial reaction was whoopty-doo. No big deal....then I watched the video.

Care to post a link to the video?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Care to post a link to the video?

It already was posted here. Go back and read dmhontz's post.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

I wish that would happen when it's hot.

I hate it when people don't take off their backpacks on the train. It's a really selfish thing to do.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

@fadamor: though correct grammar rules should be applied to news articles, it is far from rare to see "kms" or "hrs" standing for kilometers or hours. Also, common sense should avoid interpretation that the train is running at 48km per second. Not even the shuttle bus reaches that speed.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Yeah that's screwed. This isn't common sense whatsoever. It's just pandering to pressure thereby endangering lives, juts like the Osaka train driver. Here's another video for anyone who missed the previous one.

http://www.fnn-news.com/news/headlines/articles/CONN00243915.html

Definite compromise on passenger safety. Should just have got everyone off that carriage, locked the other doors and put an employee in the carriage and carried on as normal. Would have taken 2 minutes, instead of the 15/20 they said it took erecting that ridiculous curtain.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

At least they had better air in there than all the other cars.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Mike Critchley Apr. 12, 2013 - 08:05PM JST The train was crowded enough that there were still people in that middle section right in front of the curtain....literally, a curtain. The Keiyo line can get bumpy in some spots...if anybody had tripped or lost their balance, that would be the end of them. Running with the door open is no big deal. But JR was negligent for not moving people at least a few meters away from the door.

Exactly. Somebody could've accidently pushed from the back and somebody falls from the door and die. Then what? Big lawsuit? JR should've shut it down immediately and fix the problem. What this shows is JR doesn't care about the safety of passengers. There is no excuse for their action.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Thankyou to the person that shared the link for the video. As a daily JR commuter I find it good that the train wasn't delayed....but also it gets fairly crazy in the train with pushing and shoving...I wonder would that curtain stop 4 people falling into it if the train went through a rocky part?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Sorry I forgot to mention.....do you have any idea how freezing that would be??? Nice and cold! Damn!

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Initially I thought JR had made a good decision, but after watching the video I think they should have cleared at least half of that carriage. Passengers should be nowhere near the open door.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

lol this happened in vancouver!! the skytrain doors wouldn't close and it was during winter >< cold air!!

0 ( +0 / -0 )

@Fadamor exactly, i wonder why i get all those thumbs down when it was a legitimate question.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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