Kyodo news: Tohoku bullet trains fully resume

 Sendai — Bullet train services on the disaster-stricken Tohoku Shinkansen Line fully resumed Friday between Tokyo and Shin-Aomori for the first time since the March 11 disaster struck.

                                                                                                                          KYODO PHOTO

 Good to be back: A boy waves from a Tohoku shinkansen at JR Sendai Station, bound for Tokyo on Friday. The entire Tohoku Shinkansen Line reopened the same day, after services were suspended following the March 11 quake and tsunami.

 

 The resumption of services on the first day of the Golden Week holiday season is expected to bring back tourists to the disaster-hit Tohoku region as well as stimulate reconstruction activities there.

 The March 11 disaster forced East Japan Railway Co. to suspend all trains on the shinkansen line.

 Equipment including power cables and electricity poles sustained damage at about 1,200 locations.

Golden Week exit peaks

 Air, rail and road traffic out of Tokyo peaked for the annual Golden Week holidays Friday as much of the nation took advantage of a 10-day vacation period this year that will last through May 8.

 Traveler numbers were mitigated by a feeling of national restraint following the March 11 quake and tsunami disasters.

 Railway stations and airports in Tokyo were busy with travelers headed to tourist destinations or hometowns, with the Tohoku Shinkansen Line resuming full services throughout its newly completed route from Tokyo to Shin-Aomori Station after being suspended for nearly 50 days by the disaster.

 Seat reservations at Japan Railway Group companies and airlines were modest, however, as the lingering fallout from the catastrophe dissuaded many from traveling, the carriers said.

 Narita airport in Chiba Prefecture was expected to see only half its usual traffic numbers during Golden Week as the disaster and atomic crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant discourage people from splurging, its operator said.

 Still, tourist traffic got off to a relatively good start at the onset of the holiday.

 Yoshinori Imada, a 41-year-old public servant from Togane, Chiba Prefecture, who was heading for Guam with his family of three, said, "I am going to play with my daughter at the ocean and pools there."

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