2019: A Subway Line in Japan Gets a New Set of Trains

February 23, 2019

A fleet of six-car trains built for the Marunouchi Line of the Tokyo Metro, a major rapid transit system operating in Japan’s Greater Tokyo Area, first went into service on a regular basis. The first of these 53 trains, which are collectively called the Tokyo Metro 2000 series, had been formally unveiled to the press that previous October.

The 2000 series was created to eventually replace altogether the Tokyo Metro 02 series; those older trains have been used for the Marunouchi Line since 1988. In its article about the start of service for the 2000 series, the International Railway Journal highlighted a few of the innovative features of this type of train. “The 600V dc third rail trains are equipped with permanent magnet synchronous motors, reducing energy consumption by 27% compared with the 02 series trains,” reported this magazine. “Tokyo Metro says the air-conditioned trains also offer improvements in passenger comfort, accessibility and safety.”

The Asahi Shimbun cited yet another key difference between the newly inaugurated 2000 series and its predecessor. “The current ’02 series’ has a silver aluminum body decorated with a red band in the color of the line,” reported this longtime Japanese newspaper, “but the 2000 series wraps the entire body in bright red.”

On the morning that the 2000 series was officially launched, a ceremony commemorating this occasion took place at the Marunouchi Line’s Ogikubo Station (located in the Tokyo special ward of Suginami). Those participating in the ceremony included Kazufumi Noyaki, general manager of the Tokyo Metro’s railway division. He asserted to those in attendance, “The bright red cars will give vitality to Tokyo, and we will develop them into vehicles that represent not only the metro but also Tokyo.”

The Marunouchi Line has been in existence 1954 and was the first line of the present-day Tokyo Metro (originally known as the Tokyo Underground Railway) to be constructed after World War II. This line owes its name to a commercial district that is part of that Tokyo Metro route and located in Tokyo’s special ward of Chiyoda.

Photo Credit: MaedaAkihiko (licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en)

Additional information on the Tokyo Metro 2000 series is available at https://www.railjournal.com/passenger/metros/tokyo-metro-launches-new-marunouchi-line-trains/

A video featuring one of these trains can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1q7y3Sw2LYw

For more information on transportation in the Greater Tokyo Area, please check out https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transport_in_Greater_Tokyo