Service Disruptions on JR Chuo Line (Tokyo) Sept. 27-28

[Prophet of the Way]

JR East Chuo Line (Tokyo, orange trains) will partly shut down from around 4:10
PM September 27 2003 (Saturday) to around 7:00 AM September 28 (Sunday) between
Mitaka and Tachikawa due to construction work. Traffic will thin down on the
rest of the line.

JR advises to avoid trips during these hours.

Long-distance limiteds for Kofu, Matsumoto and the once daily Narita Express
coming into this section will be affected. (Other Narita Express trains to run
on schedule. They don't take the Chuo Line between Tokyo-Shinjuku.)

Shuttle buses ("direct" and "local") will span disrupted sections. They will
take more time than ordinary rail service.

In addition to JR lines, private-company rail lines will be made available to
those with JR Chuo Line tickets. A JR ticket and 'furikae-hyou' ("detour slip",
available at manned JR gates) will allow you on parallel Keio and Seibu lines,
Tama Monorail, Tobu (Kawagoe-Ikebukuro), Odakyu (Machida-Shinjuku), and all Toei
& Eidan subway lines free of extra charge. (Parallel lines are often cheaper.
Check before purchasing your ticket.)

For more information contact these numbers:
JR East Info Line 03-2423-0111 (English 10AM-6PM)
JR East Chuo Line elevation work hotline 042-525-8993 (Japanese 9AM-5PM)
http://www.jreast.co.jp/e-info/index.htm (E text)

JR East webpage on maintenance oriented service suspensions:
http://www.jreast.co.jp/suspend/index.html (J text)

Hyperdia is not programmed to handle the special timetable of the above dates
but it can help you examine detour routes:
http://www.hyperdia.com/cgi-english/

You can mail me for details: mailto:a...@wta.att.ne.jp

Take care,
Douso

[Prophet of the Way]

Construction work on JR Chuo Line is taking much more than scheduled.

As of 9:40 AM Sept 28 (Sun) service has not resumed.

JR East page on service disruptions, Kanto area:
http://www.jreast.co.jp/train_info/kanto.asp (J text)
"Ome Line: through service into Chuo Line suspended"
"Chuo Line Rapid: not moving between Mitaka-Tachikawa"

Looks like things won't be back to normal before noon.

I'm considering writing on general advice on mass transit service disruptions.
If you have any experiences you'd like to share, please let me know.

mailto:a...@wta.att.ne.jp

Sorry for the lack of foresight,
Douso

[Kevin Reilly]

On Sun, 28 Sep 2003 Prophet of the Way wrote:

>I'm considering writing on general advice on mass transit service disruptions.
>If you have any experiences you'd like to share, please let me know.

Here in the UK we had the beginnings of a mass transit service
disruption a couple of decades ago. Happily, with a bit of luck and
adequate funding, the Government is confident it will be over in another
eight years or so.

As with many domestic crises, we Brits have learned to deal with this in
three main ways:

1. Satirise it.

2. Shrug and smile knowingly.

3. Have a nice hot cup of tea.

None of these activities actually set the halls of Parliament quaking in
fear, but they do generate a strong sense of solidarity and fellowship
among Britons.

And the tea is very nice, of course.

shikata ga nai

--
Kev
__________________________________________________________________________
"Thieves stole 600 loaves of bread from an empty delivery van yesterday."
The Sun