TOKYO - Even small delays in Japan’s much-vaunted bullet trains are rare, and more unusual still are snakes on board holding up the speedy “shinkansen” services.

On the evening of April 16, a passenger alerted security to a 40cm serpent lurking on a train between Nagoya and Tokyo, resulting in a 17-minute hold-up.

It was unclear whether the cold-blooded commuter was venomous, or how it ended up on the train, and there was no injury or panic among passengers, a spokesman for Central Japan Railway told AFP.

Shinkansen customers can bring small dogs, cats and other animals, including pigeons, on board – but not snakes.

“It’s difficult to imagine wild snakes somehow climbing onto the train at one of the stations. We have rules against bringing snakes into the shinkansen,” the spokesman told AFP.

“But we don’t check passengers’ baggage,” he added.

The train was originally scheduled to go on to Osaka, but the company decided to use a different train for the trip, causing a delay of about 17 minutes, he said.

Patrols by uniformed security guards on board bullet trains were scaled up after a fatal stabbing in 2018 on a shinkansen that shocked normally ultra-safe Japan.

Additional security was added for the Summer Olympics in 2021 and Group of Seven meetings in 2023.

First launched in 1964, the shinkansen network has never suffered an accident resulting in any passenger fatalities or injuries, according to Japan Railways.

The trains can travel at 285km per hour, with an average delay of 0.2 minutes. AFP