Wednesday 24 February 2016

Inauguration of the Tozai Line in Sendai City

EMU Sendai Municipal Subway 2000 series passes over Hirose River on the Tozai Line

On December 14th, 2015, the second subway line was opened in Sendai City.

Sendai is the largest city in the Tohoku District, about 350 km north of Tokyo. The first subway route, namely Namboku Line, was partially opened between Yaotome and Tomisawa in 1987. The whole route was fully opened between Izumi-chuo and Tomisawa (14.8 km) in 1992.

Transportation Bureau of Sendai City then commenced construction of the second route, namely Tozai Line, in 2007. Connecting Yagiyama Zoological Park and Arai, the route length is 13.9 km. The gauge size is 1,435 mm and the electric system is 1,500 V DC overhead. Linear motor technology is adopted for the train driving system. Same as the Green Line of Yokohama Municipal Subway and the Ooedo Line of Tokyo Metropolitan Government, you can see a reaction plate between the two rails.

The train, being operated on the Tozai Line, is the EMU 2000 series. It is a 4-car train with two motor cars. So far, a total of 15 sets, 60 units, have been built by Kinki Sharyo. Automatic train operation system is adopted, so a train crew just pushes a button when the train leaves a station. The train runs without a conductor on board, as the Tozai Line has fewer passengers than that of the busy commuter lines in Tokyo. The design of the train is quite unique. Its face is in imitation of the warrior's helmet of Date family, which was a feudal load in the Sendai area. Cool!

In the meantime, I have linked to "Tokyo in N Scale", which is a blog following the progress of an N Scale module based on a small part of a large city, namely Tokyo.
 
Memorial sticker for inauguration of the Tozai Line, Sendai Municipal Subway

Official information about the Tozai Line of Sendai Municipal Subway (in Japanese):
Official information about Sendai Municipal Subway (in English):