Following the 1st anniversary of the Tokyu-Shinyokohama line, I'm going to show you a topic of the 1st anniversary of "another Shinyokohama line" today.
Let me quickly review the Shinyokohama lines. On the 18th of March, 2023, two new railway lines were inaugurated in Yokohama City, Kanagawa Prefecture. One is the Shinyokohama line of Tokyu Railways. The other one is the Shinyokohama line of Sagami Railway (hereafter Sotetsu). These two lines are connected at Shinyokohama station. A direct operation of the Tokyu and Sotetsu trains through Shinyokohama station was also started. What are the advantages of the opening of these lines for Sotetsu passengers? Firstly, they got a second access route to Tokyo by the Sotetsu-Tokyu direct operation trains. Secondly, transfer to the JR Central-Tokaido Shinkansen at Shinyokohama station became much easier.
In commemoration of the 1st anniversary, Sotetsu operated the anniversary trains from March 18th to May 6th. They are set 20106 of the EMU 20000 series and set 21107 of the EMU 21000 series. We could see the celebratory stickers on the front of these anniversary trains. Sotetsu's mascot character, "Sonyan", and Tokyu's mascot character, "Norurun", are seen on the stickers. Those two sets of the trains look similar, but the number of the vehicles per 1 set is different. Set 20106 is a 10-car train. On the other hand, set 21107 is an 8-car train. That's important information for trainspotters, isn't it?
Congratulations on the 1st anniversary of the Sotetsu-Shinyokohama line!
