New Hokkaido Shinkansen Blacks Out On Training Run

A disaster training drill on the soon-to-operate Hokkaido Shinkansen got a bit too real in the early hours of February 9, 2016 in Seikan tunnel, Japan, when electric power went out on the bullet train inside a 54-kilometer tunnel. Due to start service on March 26, the train was filled with nearly 300 training participants and journalists when power was lost for five minutes in the Seikan Tunnel connecting Aomori Prefecture with Hokkaido across the Tsugaru Strait. Staff at an operations control center failed to properly flip an electric switch, explained officials at Hokkaido Railway Co., which caused the glitch.