Entire Tohoku bullet train line back in service a month after quake

East Japan Railway Co on Thursday resumed services on the entire Tohoku Shinkansen bullet train line for the first time since a powerful earthquake hit the country’s northeastern region nearly a month ago.

Services were disrupted when a Tohoku Shinkansen bullet train traveling between Tokyo and Sendai, the capital of Miyagi Prefecture, derailed following the magnitude 7.4 quake on March 16, with track infrastructure also damaged.

The high-speed trains have now resumed operating between Fukushima and Sendai stations, the only stretch of the line on which operations were still suspended, and passengers are now able to travel direct from Tokyo to Aomori, the capital of the northernmost prefecture of Japan’s main island.

The resumption also enabled Hokkaido and Akita Shinkansen trains to reach Tokyo.