Passengers stranded in a Tokyo subway station last night. Photo by Ryuugakusei, via Flickr.

Like most other people around the world, we’re watching the news out of Japan today in the wake of the devastating 8.9-magnitude earthquake and subsequent tsunami. As of 2:30 p.m. Pacific time today (Friday), there had been 20 aftershocks with a magnitude greater than 6.0, according to the United States Geological Survey. The Northridge quake in 1994 had a magnitude of 6.7.

Obviously everyone at Metro — including many with family or professional ties to Japan — send their prayers and best wishes to everyone impacted by the disaster. We are also following the news to determine how Japan’s transportation infrastructure held up. As many of you know, Japan is keenly dependent on its subways, commuter rail and bullet trains to move millions of people each day.

The news, however, remains highly fragmented. At this hour, there are reports on Twitter that parts of the Tokyo subway are running again as of Saturday morning — after being shut down in the wake of the earthquake to check for damage. CBS News is also reporting that some subway lines are running. CNN is currently showing footage of bullet trains at a standstill in Sakura.

I suspect it will take several days to sort out exactly what happened. We’ll do our best to provide appropriate transportation news on The Source.