I recently visited the Kanazawa seaside line for the first time in a year. It was the sunny autumn weekend. I enjoyed every minute of this futuristic vehicle ride.
The Kanazawa Seaside line is a rubber-tired AGT (Automated Guideway Transit) system in the southern part of Yokohama City, Kanagawa Prefecture, about 40 kilometers south of Tokyo. It was opened in 1989 by Yokohama Seaside Line Company. Connecting Shin-Sugita on the JR East Negishi line and Kanazawa-hakkei on the Keikyu main line, its operating length is 10.8 kilometers. The track is double, and the train adopts a 750 V DC. ATO (Automatic Train Operation) electric system, so there is no driver or conductor on the train.
I came across a special colored train, namely set 46 of the EMU 2000 series. Different from the standard colored trains, set 46 has black and orange colored stripes on the body. The black color symbolizes the night sky, while the orange color represents the morning sun in the Yokohama bay area. Set 46 became the first train with LED frontal lights on the line.
Incidentally, the EMU 2000 series is currently the sole model on the line. It was launched in 2011 to replace the old EMU 1000 series. Eighteen sets (from set 31 to set 48) of 5-car train (90 cars) were built by J-TREC (former Tokyu-sharyo) between 2011 and 2019. The era of the EMU 2000 series will continue for the time being on the Kanazawa Seaside line.
Official information about the EMU 2000 series (in Japanese):