It's already late January. Time really flies. Before ending the first month of the year 2025, I'm going to show you one more topic on the New Year railway scene in Tokyo.
Please look at the top photo. You can see a monorail train with a yellow-colored plate on the front. It’s trainset 10081 of EMU Tokyo Monorail 10000 series travelling on the Haneda Airport line. Let me review the Haneda Airport line. It’s an airport access monorail line from downtown Tokyo to Tokyo International Airport (Haneda). This route was opened in 1964 as the second oldest monorail line in Tokyo. The EMU 10000 series is the newest model consisting of 6 cars. The body is made of aluminum and the bogies are bolster-less. The IGBT-VVVF (variable-frequency drive) control system is applied. A green-colored stripe above the windows is a good accent. The yellow-colored front plate is shaped “2025” using snake designs. As you may know, 2025 is the Year of the Snake.
On the other hand, the photo below is trainset 10041 of the 10000 series. The body color of this train has been returned to the original state, which was adopted when the Haneda Airport line was opened. We can see the other kind of plate celebrating “2025 New Year” on the front of this train. Incidentally, you can see 634 meters high Tokyo Skytree, a TV and radio broadcasting tower, in the back. It's located about 14 kilometers northeast, and known as the tallest freestanding broadcasting tower in the world.
Trainset 10041 (in the front) and Tokyo Skytree (in the back)