Friday 22 May 2020

EMU TX-3000 Series: New Model on the TX Line

82F of the EMU TX-3000 series travels on the Tsukuba Express line

On March 14th, the Metropolitan Intercity Railway Company launched their new commuter train, EMU TX-3000 series, on their Tsukuba Express (TX) line. The regional population along the TX line has been steadily increasing since it was opened in 2005, so that the introduction of the new trains will contribute to reducing congestion of the TX line. The company purchased 5 sets (30 cars) of the TX-3000 from Hitachi in the fiscal year 2019.

The TX-3000 is an AC-DC dual system train the same as the TX-2000 series. Its maximum speed is 130 kilometers per hour. It has gleaming aluminum double-skinned bodies with red and blue colored accents. The greatest feature of the TX-3000 is its odd-shaped front mask. It's a similar design with trains in the early 1970s, but more sophisticated thanks to improving molding and welding technologies. The granular LED lights on the front mask are also futuristic. In terms of the technical specifications, an SiC-VVVF (silicon carbide-variable frequency drive) inverter electric control system was employed. The new system comes with a maximum 13 percent improvement in its electric power consumption performance over the previous trains.

On May 31st, 2019, the company announced that the longer trains will be introduced for further reinforcement of the transportation capacity... from 6-cars to 8-cars. It's really good news for passengers, but the greatest issue is the target date. It will take 10 years from now for the extension of station platforms with the expansion of automatic platform gates. Can you speed it up?

82F of the EMU TX-3000 series leaves Kita-Senju station

Official promotion movie, EMU TX-3000 series, Assembly (in Japanese):
Official promotion movie, EMU TX-3000 series, Transportation (in Japanese):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6uyC3ND2LOk
Official promotion movie, EMU TX-3000 series, Test run (in Japanese):