JR Kyushu restores full service on Kumamoto line 74 days after quake

Seventy-four days after the July 28 tremor in Kumamoto Prefecture, JR Kyushu announced the full restoration of the local line linking Uto and Yatsushiro stations. The section, heavily used by schoolchildren, had been closed due to warped rails, damaged utility poles and missing overhead wires, prompting the railway to provide substitute bus service from August 26. The bus journey lasted about one hour and fifty minutes, far longer than the roughly thirty-minute train trip.

Early Saturday trains saw junior and senior high students boarding, including 13-year-old Yukiko Miyagawa, who expressed relief at returning to a normal routine. The Kyushu Shinkansen bullet line between Kumamoto and Shin-Yatsushiro had already reopened in September, and a separate local service between Yatsushiro and Higo-Tanoura is expected to resume on Tuesday, ending all quake-related suspensions.