At a press conference after the cabinet meeting, Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, Saito, said that the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism is working to prevent a recurrence of the problem that many passengers were trapped inside the trains on the JR Kyoto Line and Biwako Line due to the heavy snow. He expressed his intention to consider improvement measures.
On the night of the 24th of this month, when it snowed heavily, it became impossible to switch points on the tracks at a total of 21 locations on the Kyoto Line and Biwako Line of JR West, and 15 trains were stuck, and about 7,000 people were temporarily on board. trapped in
On the 26th, JR West President Kazuaki Hasegawa held a press conference and indicated that he would review the series of judgments and responses, saying that there was an error in the prior judgment.
Regarding this, Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Saito said at a press conference after the cabinet meeting, ``I am sorry that many passengers were kept in a crowded car for a long time, and some of them were in poor physical condition. It is regrettable," and criticized JR West's response.
After that, he said, ``Based on the report of JR West, we would like to take necessary measures and strive to prevent a similar situation from reoccurring.''
In response to this problem, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism has issued a warning to railway operators nationwide through the Transport Bureau of each region so that similar cases do not occur.