Tokyo-Osaka bullet train ridership falls by 'unprecedented' 56%

NAGOYA -- Ridership on Japan's busiest bullet train line plummeted 56% on the year in early March, the biggest drop in at least 33 years, as a widening coronavirus outbreak disrupted travel.

The current decline in ridership on the Tokaido Shinkansen, which connects Tokyo with Osaka, surpasses the 20% fall in March 2011, when Japan suffered a deadly earthquake and tsunami.