On March 16th, JR East changed their timetable for the first time in a year. What was new with Japan's largest railway?
The big news was the debut of a new model on Yamagata Shinkansen. Let me quickly review Yamagata Shinkansen to start. It's a branch line of Tohoku Shinkansen, and a kind of "mini-shinkansens". Connecting Fukushima station on Tohoku Shinkansen and Shinjo terminal in Yamagata Prefecture, its line length is 148.6 kilometers. This route was originally constructed as a conventional line with a narrow gauge (1,067 millimeters) track, but the gauge was changed to the shinkansen size (1,435 millimeters) later.
A new model, named the EMU E8 series, is the third generation Yamagata Shinkansen train following the 400 and the E3 series. Being coupled with the E5 series, the E8 series is operated from Tokyo to Fukushima station on Tohoku Shinkansen. The E8 series is then detached, and runs by itself to Shinjo terminal. What are the main differences between the old E3 and the new E8 series? Firstly, its maximum speed was raised from 275 to 300 kilometers per hour on the Tohoku Shinkansen section. Secondly, a full active suspension system is notable. It's a special device to minimize the lateral swinging movement of the train by artificially creating a reverse swinging movement. Different from the E3 series, the full active suspension system is applied to not only the head cars but also the middle cars. Please enjoy photos of the E8 series, which have just been shot.
