A power outage near Ueno Station in Tokyo around 7 a.m. on January 30 led to a partial suspension of JR Joban Line services. East Japan Railway (JR East) attributed the issue to a broken overhead wire, with operations not expected to resume until at least 2 p.m.
A power outage struck near JR Ueno Station in Tokyo around 7 a.m. on Friday, January 30, 2026, causing partial suspension of operations on the Joban Line. According to East Japan Railway, or JR East, the incident was due to a broken overhead line, which also briefly halted services on the Utsunomiya and Takasaki lines before they resumed after 8 a.m. As of 11 a.m., Joban Line trains remained suspended between Shinagawa Station in Tokyo and Abiko Station in Chiba Prefecture, while rapid services were stopped between Shinagawa and Matsudo Station in Chiba. JR East instructed passengers on four trains stranded between stations to walk along the tracks to the nearest stations. Services are not expected to resume until at least 2 p.m. This follows a January 16 incident where the Yamanote Line was suspended for about eight hours due to construction errors at night, raising questions about JR East's operational reliability. The outage significantly disrupted commuters, forcing many to seek alternative transport.