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JR West to Use Seafloor N-net Data to Cut Sanyo Shinkansen Quake Stop Time by Up to 20 Seconds

The April rollout draws on NIED’s N-net to close a DONET gap between off Kochi and off Miyazaki for earlier Nankai Trough detection.

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Overview

  • JR West announced on March 18 that it will feed N-net seafloor seismic data into its automatic earthquake stop system for the Sanyo Shinkansen.
  • The change takes effect in April 2026 and is expected to allow emergency braking up to about 20 seconds sooner during a Nankai Trough megathrust quake.
  • N-net, completed by the National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Resilience in June 2025, places sensors closer to potential offshore rupture zones.
  • The integration fills a prior seafloor observation gap left by DONET in waters from off Kochi to off Miyazaki.
  • Until now the railway relied on along-line and coastal seismometers, DONET data, and Japan Meteorological Agency alerts to detect P-waves and brake before stronger S-waves arrived.