New Trains for the Tokyo Monorail Coming next summer, with a focus on “Harmony”

　　Tokyo Monorail, the company providing access to Tokyo’s Haneda Airport, on September 10 announced it would run new, more energy-efficient trains beginning in July 2014.

　　Next year will be the monorail line’s 50th anniversary (it began operating in 1964, in time for the Tokyo Olympics that year).
The new Series 10000 will gradually replace all of the company’s 16 existing Series 1000 trains. This will be the first launch of new trains on the line in 17 years, and they will become an essential transportation service for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

　　Each train will have six cars, all equipped with regenerative brakes to add power to the system during braking, helping to run the trains. Inverters will convert the DC current to AC to turn the motors. The headlights and interior lighting will use LEDs, and electric power consumption when the trains are running will drop by about 20% compared to today’s Series 1000 trains.

　　Recalling the abundant vegetation and water along the track, train exteriors will be decorated in green and blue. The interiors are being completely redesigned. Series 800 trains, in operation from 1985 to 1997, had doors between cars, and access between cars will return after an absence of 17 years. Wheeled suitcases will slide smoothly into luggage spaces that are level with the floor, a first for the Tokyo Monorail. Information panels above the doors will have LCD screens, and announcements can be given in four languages: Chinese, English, Japanese and Korean.

This article appeared in the Asahi Shimbun newspaper on September 11, 2013. We thank the publisher, Asahi Shimbun-sha, for granting us permission to present the article in translation.