JR Kyushu held a press conference on the afternoon of July 18 to apologize for the massive transportation disruption caused that morning by an error made during the changing of a circuit board. It was the first parts change since the system went online in 1997, and it resulted in the shutdown of the main system and the first backup system, which is reserved for emergencies. Service was resumed using a test system. The circuit board was part of the Automatic Train Control (ATC), a system that automatically controls train numbers and services. This mishap affected 111,000 passengers on 358 regular and express trains traveling on 15 train lines in Kyushu. In an unrelated incident, a lightning strike and train malfunction on Nishitetsu’s Omuta Line on July 18 resulted in 55 trains being cancelled and 269 being delayed for over an hour, affecting 75,000 riders. According to Nishitetsu, it had trains reduce their speeds near Ajisaka Station around 15:10 due to strong rains in Ogori City. Twenty minutes later, the Asakura-Fukutsu portion of the line stopped for three minutes due to a lightning strike. Ten minutes later another train traveling between from Daizenji to Tenjin experienced a DC-AC converter malfunction between Ajisaka and Miya Stations and remained stopped on the tracks for 1 hour and 20 minutes until it could be pushed by another train. The 65 passengers stuck inside were finally able to get off at Hatama Station around 17:20. There were no injuries. Source: Nishinippon Shimbun, July 19
