UN Japan bullet train driver leaves controls for bathroom break as train speeds at 150 km/h with 160 aboard

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A Japanese bullet train driver is facing disciplinary action after he left the crew compartment of the train — travelling at 150 km/h with 160 passengers inside — to use the bathroom.

The shikansen driver asked a conductor to sit in his place while he went to relieve a stomach ache, according to Kyodo News Agency.


The conductor, who was not qualified to drive the train, sat in the compartment for three minutes and never touched the controls.

Shikansen drivers who feel ill are required to either stop at the nearest station or report to an operations centre and hand the controls to a qualified conductor.

But the driver said he didn’t want to lose time by stopping the train at the next stop.

“I didn’t report it because it was embarrassing,” he told JR Central, the railway company operating in central Japan.

He and the conductor might have gotten away with their transgressions if the train hadn’t arrived one minute late at its next stop, immediately triggering an investigation.

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The incident happened last weekend, while the train was speeding along the Tokaido line, which links Tokyo and Osaka, the Guardian reported.

Masahiro Hayatsu, a JR Central senior officer apologized and told reporters the driver’s actions had been “extremely inappropriate”.

The company stated that this is the first time a bullet train driver has left the cockpit of a moving train carrying passengers.

Japan’s shikansen are well-known around the world for their extreme punctuality and speeds, which can reach up to 320 km/h.

More than 400,000 people use the Tokaido service daily.

While most commuters around the world are accustomed to waiting for long-delayed trains, it’s uncommon for bullet trains in Japan to go off schedule by even a few seconds.

In 2018, a train left a station 25 seconds before its scheduled departure time, after its conductor couldn’t see anyone on the platform. This triggered an apology from Japan’s national railway system, who condemned the driver’s actions as ‘inexcusable’, CNN reported.

In 2017, a Tsukuba Express conductor precipitated another apology after he departed 20 seconds early.

https://vancouversun.com/news/world...oard/wcm/ec75dcf5-b314-46e6-8d76-ce78dfd32acb

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I think the drivers are under extreme pressure to meet scheduling if they are departing early to give them a miniscule margin of time to arrive.
 
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Getwhatyou said:
All trains have dead man switches for this reason. You have to hit it every few minutes. So he must have been quick. He could take a pointer from our user base tho and use a bottle like a proper gentle sir
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You ever tried to shit diarrhea into a bottle before? Notice he said "stomach ache".
 
Toolbox said:
Yes, but in the long run is it not worth it to have a vehicle that can move 100+ km/h constantly, able to deliver people over those major distances of the landmass? We slacked off because cars came into the picture. They aren't as efficient, more dangerous, among other issues. Their positives also do not outweight what a train can do. Somehow, instead of investing in high speed trains, we spent money on nonsense like monorails and now the hyperloop.
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The thing is, a rail line requires a massive amount of construction, even moreso if you are to have a high-speed passenger line. For instance, the engineering challenges BC Rail had trying to build a rail line north were massive, and worth a read. The terrain only allowed them to build the rail line up to the Tumbler Ridge area.

Rail passenger service still exists in North America (Amtrak in the US, VIA Rail in Canada), but those is often viewed with almost the same distain that buslines have.
 
Bill Dauterive said:
I quite enjoy owning and driving a car where I can listen to loud music and throw trash where I please rather than sitting next to niggers and tweakers trying to avoid eye contact with them.
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If we had a competent government then this wouldn't be a problem.
Goofy Logic said:
The thing is, a rail line requires a massive amount of construction, even moreso if you are to have a high-speed passenger line. For instance, the engineering challenges BC Rail had trying to build a rail line north were massive, and worth a read. The terrain only allowed them to build the rail line up to the Tumbler Ridge area.

Rail passenger service still exists in North America (Amtrak in the US, VIA Rail in Canada), but those is often viewed with almost the same distain that buslines have.
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How long ago was this? Even countries like China are managing to build high speed rail systems (whether they will stand for more than ten years is another thing) both construction ability and speed can be improved with current technology. If we didn't have shit ass trains that are only useful for cargo and were as fancy dancy as the bullet trains of Japan, things would be looking better for public transport.
 
Toolbox said:
How long ago was this? Even countries like China are managing to build high speed rail systems (whether they will stand for more than ten years is another thing) both construction ability and speed can be improved with current technology. If we didn't have shit ass trains that are only useful for cargo and were as fancy dancy as the bullet trains of Japan, things would be looking better for public transport.
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The Tumbler Ridge line was finished in 1989 at the cost of $2.5 billion. Ten years later BC Rail was "leased" to CN Rail because the BC government felt it was a financial burden.

I'm sure the Chinese government has put tons of engineering surveys in, are dealing fairly with the people affected, and are ensuring a high quality product, and it is totally not a glamor project that is a regular speed train in disguise.
 
Bill Dauterive said:
Obsession with trains is a hallmark trait of the severely autistic.
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Desu Mountain said:
Fucking dumbasses. 申し訳ありません is just how you say "I'm sorry" in formal speech. It's not supposed to be translated literally to "There is no excuse". Western media actually headlined that bog-standard routine apology in 2018.
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I mean, the article also couldn’t spell “Shinkansen” correctly, so expecting them to translate Japanese properly might be a high bar.
 
Toolbox said:
If we had a competent government then this wouldn't be a problem.

How long ago was this? Even countries like China are managing to build high speed rail systems (whether they will stand for more than ten years is another thing) both construction ability and speed can be improved with current technology. If we didn't have shit ass trains that are only useful for cargo and were as fancy dancy as the bullet trains of Japan, things would be looking better for public transport.
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I suggest you take a look at how California's high speed rail attempts have gone. Well, I'm not sure if it was multiple attempts or just the same one that kept rising from the grave like either a zombie or a government program until Newsom killed it to spend the money on his own pet projects, but regardless, all of the proposals had it taking longer to go from San Fran to LA than driving there even with the notorious California highway traffic, and for more than the price of an airline ticket. And that's with the most optimistic assumptions of success. If Bay Area liberals cannot even pretend that "high speed" rail is the least bit competitive with either driving or flying in the USA, who am I to question their bona fides?
 
Toolbox said:
If we had a competent government then this wouldn't be a problem.

How long ago was this? Even countries like China are managing to build high speed rail systems (whether they will stand for more than ten years is another thing) both construction ability and speed can be improved with current technology. If we didn't have shit ass trains that are only useful for cargo and were as fancy dancy as the bullet trains of Japan, things would be looking better for public transport.
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Air travel. Trains are for faggots, communists, and Europeans. I repeat myself.

Oh and freight. Which is where it SHINES and the US is the world leader. You know, actually doing work and not shuffling people around for no money requiring massive government subsidies and regulatory handjobs. If you wanna go anywhere in the US fly Southwest. Quicker and cheaper. Done.

Now stop being a foamer because the US doesn't have white elephant electric high speed pullman cars. It isn't practical.
 
>Not just shiting out the window of a bullet train for the luls
This kind of shit is why Japan lost WW2.
 
Toolbox said:
More like how do we get US trains onto the modern standard that a lot of the western world enjoys. How did we give up on them so hard? We still essentially use the same trains we had in the 50s.
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Because, unlike Japan, our rail infrastructure wasn't bombed to dust by B-29s, allowing it to be rebuilt for optimized high-speed, and all that entails (no sharp turns, no grade-level crossings with roads, etc)

The reason we're still at 50's level tech in the US train-wise is because the fundamental building blocks of our current track infrastructure have reached full maturity, they can't allow faster speeds without scrapping and rebuilding large chunks of them at exorbitant cost.

Especially here in the Northeast, where hundreds of bridges, tunnels and other right-of-way obstacles mean billions of dollars in expenditure to uprate, as well as whole towns/neighborhoods on either side of the track that would have to be bulldozed away to get rid of those tight 20 degree curves and reverse-curves that no high-speed train can navigate without derailing. It's just not going to happen. Because there isn't the political will to force tens of thousands to relocate and pay for it.

You'd also have to nationalize the railroads.

In the US, 90% of the track is in the hand of private operators. It was an easy thing to do in post-war Japan and Europe, but in the US, where 4 or 5 private class-1 railroads own it all, effectively? And have billions in value? And profitable freight services? Nobody's giving that up without a fight.

Disheveled Human said:
In Japan you are supposed to sit in your shit stained pants until end of shift otherwise it brings great dishonor to your ancestors and you must commit sudoku afterwords.
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That's "Seppuku" , though committing Sudoku would be pretty bad too... I hate those little number games.
 
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I ve been to japan and using the word "diahhrea" I got from a dictionary kept getting corrected to "stomach ache" like 3 times.

Also needing pee kept ketting corrected to "Wash hands"
 
Toolbox said:
More like how do we get US trains onto the modern standard that a lot of the western world enjoys. How did we give up on them so hard? We still essentially use the same trains we had in the 50s.
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1. Turns out air travel is cheaper, more direct and doesn't need any fixed infrastructure aside from a few airports.
2. We also have an extensive highway system for short and long-distance travel.
3. Railroads figured out that pulling freight cars was infinitely more profitable than pulling passengers around.

The soyboys up north have the Northeast Corridor and Acela, but that area's dense enough to make commuter rail work. LA to SF? Not so much. That California high-speed rail bullshit is a taxpayer money sink. Anywhere else and you're better off driving or flying, so suck it up, buttercup.

Fugax said:
Installing shit holes into the driver seats is the next logical step. Or suction tubes. Or if you wanna get creative, both
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Every conductor gets a colostomy bag with a quick-release port. Just bag your shit and go.
 
Long Tongue Silver said:
The soyboys up north have the Northeast Corridor and Acela, but that area's dense enough to make commuter rail work. LA to SF? Not so much. That California high-speed rail bullshit is a taxpayer money sink. Anywhere else and you're better off driving or flying, so suck it up, buttercup.
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Also there are two corridors in California that matter, thats Bay are to sacramento

And San diego to Los angels

IF you build a highspeed rail for those two legs your done and the dream of a north to south HSR dies.

So they want to build a run in the central valley first to make sure there is a SD to SF line.

At first I thought it was stupid but upon learning that EATDAPUSS42 is in bakersfield I support giving him access to all the state to eat pussy on.
 
Toolbox said:
More like how do we get US trains onto the modern standard that a lot of the western world enjoys. How did we give up on them so hard? We still essentially use the same trains we had in the 50s.
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At least you still have trains.
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