Tokyu Railways recently started "Q-SEAT Car" operation on the Toyoko line. I'm going to introduce this topic to you today.
What's Q-SEAT Car? It's a reserved seat car on the Tokyu lines. Japanese workers are very busy. They sometimes need something before getting home as a treat for themselves, but their journey home is hard because urban commuter trains are packed on most of the lines. That's a background to urban-type reserved seat trains appearing. Q-SEAT Car has multi-purpose seats, which the conductor can change from long seats to cross seats using a remote-control system. The cross-seat mode is applied when it's provided as a reserved seat car during rush hour. Tokyu first introduced Q-SEAT Car on the Oimachi line in 2018, then expanded it on the Toyoko line this year. Two Q-SEAT Cars are coupled within a 10-car train on the Toyoko line. The train with Q-Seat Cars is operated from Shibuya, a subcenter of Tokyo Metropolis, to Motomachi-Chukagai in Yokohama City. The operating interval is every 30 minutes in the evening. The fee for a seat reservation is 500 yen (3.4 USD).
Incidentally, the rolling stock used for Q-SEAT Car on the Toyoko line is the Class SaHa 4400 and DeHa 4500 of the EMU 5050-4000 series. The 5050-4000 series is a 10-car train group of the EMU 5050 series. The standard car has red and pink-colored stripes; meanwhile, Q-SEAT Car has a plain red-colored body. Q-SEAT Car is a relaxing train for hard workers in the metropolitan area.
Interior of the Q-SEAT car (long seat mode), the EMU Tokyu 5050-4000 series