Evacuation not only for people but also for the Shinkansen Lessons from Typhoon No. 19 October 14, 18:52
Last year's typhoon No. 19.
I think that there are many people who are impressed by the appearance of the Hokuriku Shinkansen soaked in brown muddy water that was shown in the news footage.
The scene strongly taught us that "humans are not the only ones who need to evacuate."
1 year after that.
How is the Shinkansen trying to evacuate from a disaster?
The other day, I closely interviewed the evacuation drill of the JR East Shinkansen, which was held for the first time at the Hokuriku Shinkansen depot in Nagano City.
(Naoki Hashimoto, Social Affairs Department / Railway)
The current depot is ...
A depot where 10 Shinkansen trains sank in brown water.
The damage to important equipment at the base was serious.
All power supplies were destroyed and it was no longer possible to deliver electricity into the depot.
Equipment such as signals required to move the vehicle was also broken and could not be used.
Restoration work took time, and of the 11 tracks that keep the Shinkansen at the base, currently less than half of the 11 tracks can be used, and even one year after the damage, it is still in the middle of the road to "complete restoration". To be honest, I was surprised.
There are still some Shinkansen cars that were scrapped due to flooding, and I felt the weight of the damage again.
Start of training What is "Vehicle evacuation judgment support system"?
The training assumes that there is an increased risk of flooding due to a typhoon of the same scale as last year's typhoon No. 19.
In Typhoon No. 19, the rain that fell upstream flowed into the river at once, flooding and flooding, causing great damage.
To prevent damage, JR East has introduced its own system, "Vehicle Evacuation Judgment Support System," to determine the evacuation of vehicles.
Until now, the decision to evacuate a vehicle was made based on a comprehensive judgment, so to speak, "experience of a railroad man", although it looked at the course of the typhoon and the amount of rainfall expected along the railway line, but did not have a numerical standard.
In the new "Vehicle Evacuation Judgment Support System", we decided to incorporate the prediction of rainfall in the river basin.
We use the rainfall forecast announced by the Japan Meteorological Agency every 5 km square up to 39 hours ahead.
Numerical standards based on predictions are set, and alarms are set in two stages: "preparation standards" for gathering drivers necessary for evacuation and examining evacuation sites, and "alarm standards" for actually starting evacuation.
The driver calls in an "emergency vehicle"
The training began with the assumption that the driver was not at the depot when the "preparation criteria" were exceeded.
In order to move the Shinkansen from the depot, it is necessary for the driver to arrive at the depot as soon as possible because it is necessary to start by inspecting the vehicle for abnormalities.
The trainer decided to convene a driver at the waiting area at Nagano Station, which is about 10 kilometers away.
I used a JR emergency vehicle, which, like ambulances and police cars, can be lit with a red light for emergency driving.
For training purposes, we did not make an emergency run this time, but the driver used this vehicle to rush to the depot.
What was actually evacuated ... Actually, only one organization
When the driver arrived, the "warning standard" was exceeded, and the trainee contacted the command center and immediately ordered the vehicle to evacuate.
By calling the driver to the base according to the "preparation standards", we were able to move the vehicle immediately and the Shinkansen evacuated to Nagano Station.
I was able to evacuate safely in the training ...
One driver rushed in and one train evacuated.
Last year, 10 trains were damaged.
Can this training protect 10 formations?
Two weeks after the training, I asked Yusuke Konishi, General Manager of the Shinkansen Transportation Vehicle Department of the JR East Shinkansen Headquarters.
It is necessary to repeat the training to increase the number of evacuation vehicles in the future
Konishi Shinkansen Transportation Vehicle Manager
"We conducted training on the desk in March and June. This time, we were training to move the vehicle for the first time, and I am glad that we were able to proceed smoothly. If the number of evacuation is increasing, it is about to come. "
What exactly does that mean?
In March of this year, JR East first conducted training on the map on the premise of evacuation of two trains.
Once in July, there was a case where the "preparation standard" was exceeded before the first train, and there was a case where the vehicle was actually moved to Nagano Station early.
This was the first step in the measures taken by JR East based on the lessons learned from last year's damage, and we were able to confirm the procedure through training this time as well.
On the other hand, it is said that the training to actually evacuate many formations is yet to come.
Konishi Shinkansen Transportation Vehicle Manager
"Evacuation of 5 trains (currently can be stopped) has a new manual, but training is about to be done on the desk first. When it comes to evacuating 5 trains, not only Nagano Station but also Joetsu Myoko You will have to evacuate to another station, such as a station or Karuizawa station. You will have to think about resuming operation after the evacuation, which will make evacuation more complicated. "
When waiting for a vehicle at a station, preferentially evacuate to a station with multiple tracks.
This is because if a vehicle is evacuated to a station with only one railroad track, it will hinder the movement of other vehicles and it will not be possible to evacuate over a wide area.
Joetsu Myoko Station and Karuizawa Station are relatively close to the depot among the stations with multiple railroad tracks, but the distance is about 70 km to Joetsu Myoko Station and 85 to Karuizawa Station. There are about a kilometer.
Even if you say "to evacuate a vehicle", the actual evacuation is widespread and not easy.
Important equipment that was actually dangerous
Last year's flood also flooded a building containing an important computer called the "Signal Power Room."
Fortunately, the computer on the second floor was safe, and JR East was able to gather power supply equipment from all over the country and resume operation of the Hokuriku Shinkansen on all lines in 12 days.
However, an executive of JR East said, "If the computer couldn't be used, it wouldn't have been possible to resume driving for a considerable period of time."
The depot in Nagano City is estimated to cost about 50 billion yen for restoration and flood control.
In addition, measures such as raising important equipment have not yet begun due to problems such as the cost burden of construction.
What we should accept
As we have seen, evacuation of the Shinkansen requires a lot of coordination, labor, and a lot of time.
For this reason, in reality, it may be necessary to suspend operations early, or it may be necessary to return to the original starting station from the evacuation site, which will affect the timetable.
"I think that I have to decide to evacuate even if I am prepared to evacuate to some extent. I would appreciate it if you could understand the evacuation of vehicles."
Following the great damage this time, Yusuke Konishi, director of the Shinkansen transportation vehicle department of JR East, said:
Once a Shinkansen car or depot is severely damaged, subsequent restoration costs a lot of money, and in the worst case, it has a serious impact on our travel, business and other lives.
As the weather phenomenon is predicted to become extreme due to global warming, JR is required to steadily evacuate the Shinkansen and take measures against inundation of facilities.
At the same time, I strongly felt that we had to think about how to live and work, such as accepting that we would be suspended for a long time through training.
Reporter of the Social Affairs Department
Naoki Hashimoto in
charge of railways