Reptile causes major delays in Japan

TOKYO — It’s likely some of the tens of thousands of passengers were hissing with anger after a snake brought Japan’s busiest bullet train line to a halt.

The 39-inch reptile slithered onto an overhead power line and tangled itself, a spokesperson for line operator JR Central told NBC News. As a result, it shorted the electricity supply and brought the line between Osaka and Tokyo to a halt.

The blackout occurred at 5:26 p.m. (4:26 a.m. ET) and power was not restored until 7 p.m. (6 a.m. ET), affecting 86 trains, the spokesperson said.

Every day, more than 430,000 passengers ride the Tokaido Shinkansen, a key Japanese railway artery that connects its capital Tokyo with Nagoya and Osaka, according to JR Central.

The bullet trains are known for reaching speeds of 180 mph, and also their punctuality: The average delay on the line last year was 1.6 minutes per train across the 372 trains it operated each day.

“I use the Shinkansen several times a month, but this is the first time I have experienced suspensions due to a power outage,” one passenger, Satoshi Tagawa, 46, who was due to return to Tokyo, told the local news outlet Kyodo News.

“I am relieved,” said 26-year-old Kazutoshi Tachi, after learning that services had resumed. “But I am fed up with the troubles [with Shinkansen services]. I want them to run on time.”

Snakes making their way onto Shinkansen lines is rare, though it’s not the first time this has happened. Last year, a 16-inch snake crawled its way into a passenger carriage on a train along the Tokyo-Nagoya line.

The JR Central spokesperson said they had no idea how it got into the carriage.

Arata Yamamoto reported from Tokyo and Mithil Aggarwal reported from Hong Kong.