Japan’s railways to get an earthquake early-warning upgrade

In earthquake-prone Japan, 20 seconds could make a difference in minimising loss of life among train passengers who experience traumatic shaking during a major seismic event.The operator of the Shinkansen line between Osaka and Fukuoka in southern Japan is upgrading its earthquake early warning system to give trains operating at speeds of up to 300km/h (186mph) an additional 20 seconds to slow down and avert catastrophe in an area that experts warn could be hit by a megaquake at any moment.In a statement issued last week, the Japan-railway-company" class="entity-link entity-organization" data-entity-id="57926" data-entity-type="organization">West Japan Railway Company said it had been working with the Railway Technical Research Institute and the National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Prevention and that its existing earthquake detection system would be upgraded from April 1.The railway company is linking its warning system to the Nankai Trough Submarine Earthquake and Tsunami Observation Network, also known as N-net, a 1,640 fibre-optic cable network completed in June on the seabed off Shikoku and the eastern seaboard of Kyushu.The US$120-million project was designed to fill a gap in seismic monitoring in the area, as concerns have grown about the inevitability of a massive earthquake in the Nankai Trough, which spans 900km (559 miles) parallel to the south coast from Suruga Bay in the east to Kyushu in the west.Alerts are automatically sent out when monitoring equipment detects the primary wave of a quake, which moves faster and causes less damage than secondary waves, giving a few crucial seconds’ warning. That information will now be shared with trains.