Mind-boggling efficiency

Today the Yamanote line in Tokyo was shut down because of a problem with the tracks. Five hours later, it was open again and train services had resumed (more detail can be found in this newspaper article).

It's amazing. If anything like this had happened in England, the line would be shut for days (and evenryone affected would be 'working at home'). But not in Japan. The incident happened, then a team (or rather legion) of construction workers fixed the problem before the evening so the trains could resume for the rush hour.

Amazing.