I recently visited Yokohama City, as something came up. After finishing my meeting, I took a detour on my way back home, and enjoyed Sagami Railway (Sotetsu) for a while. It's been one and a half years since I last took the Sotetsu line. What's new with Sotetsu?
I came across a renovated train, set 10701 of the EMU 10000 series. It used to be a silver-colored train with blue and orange-colored stripes, but it has become ultramarine-colored (so-called Yokohama Navy blue-colored). Look closely, I also found that the position of the front lights had been moved from the lower to the upper part of the face following recent trends. In addition, I was surprised that the renovation had been conducted by JR East Nagano factory... not by Sotetsu's factory. It's probably because the 10000 series has the same specifications as those of the JR East E231 series.
This renovation was one of Sotetsu's projects to enhance the "company brand strength". Many railway companies in the Tokyo metropolitan area are in competition to attract passengers. It might be hard to imagine for foreigners, but I expect you understand that the railway network in the metropolitan area is dense, so, it allows the passengers to choose the best route to get to their destination.
For your information, the Sotetsu 10000 series was launched in 2002 to replace old models such as the 6000 series. 8 sets, 70 cars in total, were built by Tokyu Sharyo and JR East Niitsu factory.
