It's already September, but the lingering summer heat is still intense. I'm somewhat fed up of going out when it's this hot, but trains are calling me. I recently visited the Sobu rapid line to see how that goes.
To start, let's quickly review the Sobu rapid line. It's JR East's commuter line in the metropolitan area. Connecting Tokyo and Chiba stations, its route length is 39.2 kilometers. The Sobu rapid line is actually just a common name. The formal name is the Sobu main line. Why don't people use this formal name? It's because the Sobu main line is a double-double-track, and composed of two lines (double-tracks). One is the Sobu local line and the other is the Sobu rapid line. As its name suggests, local trains (all-stations trains) are operated on the Sobu local line; meanwhile, rapid service trains are operated on the Sobu rapid line. The airport access trains, namely "Narita Express (N'EX)", are also operated on the Sobu rapid line. That's slightly complicated.
Let's finally head to the main topic. I found that a new model, namely E235-1000 series, grew into the large fleet on the line. 35 sets, 273 cars in total, are currently operated on the Sobu rapid line. On the contrary, an old model, namely E217 series has been decreasing in number. According to several rail-fans, all the E217 series will be retired from the track by March 2024. JR East is undergoing a generational change of trains on the Sobu rapid line.
