Gate glitch gives commuters free ride

About 4,400 ticket gates at 662 railway and subway stations in the Tokyo area malfunctioned Friday morning, resulting in free rides for thousands of commuters at major stations.

An East Japan Railway employee at JR Shibuya Station urges commuters to get on the trains for free Friday morning after its electronic ticket gates malfunctioned. KYODO PHOTO

It was the first major glitch involving multiple rail systems since IC fare cards became interchangeable between East Japan Railway Co. and West Japan Railway Co. in August 2004.

Railways said the cause of the mass malfunction may have been a glitch in the programming linking the ticket gates to the computer servers, which handle the data for the competing fare cards — JR East's Suica card and the Pasmo card, which debuted in March.

The two cards allow passengers to ride trains run by multiple railway or subway companies within the Tokyo metropolitan area.

All the affected gates were built by Nippon Signal Co.

Although the gates failed to operate after they were turned on at the start of the day, no train services were disrupted. All gates started operating normally at around 9:20 a.m. on the Tokyo Metro subway system and at around 10 a.m. at stations run by JR East.

At a news conference, Nippon Signal issued a statement taking responsibility for the glitch.

"We think the responsibility lies with us. We apologize to the passengers," the statement said.

Transport minister Tetsuzo Fuyushiba urged the railways to find the cause of the incident and prevent a recurrence.

"There is no doubt they caused trouble to passengers during the most congested commuting hours," he said at his regular press conference.

"A common card that can be used on the railways of several operators is convenient and rare in the world. We will have to improve it."

Trouble involving Nippon Signal gates also occurred last December, when they failed to allow Suica users to pass due to system errors.

No trouble occurred at stations with gates made by other manufacturers, including those of Keihin Electric Express Railway Co.

JR East said the trouble affected about 190 of its stations as well as stations on the Tokyo Monorail line.

To help ease congestion, JR East decided to let passengers pass free of charge at all stations in the area.

Underground, about 150 subway stations run by Tokyo Metro Co. and the metropolitan government were affected by the glitch.