Saturday 1 February 2014

The 50th Anniversary of Tokyo Monorail

EMU Tokyo Monorail 1000 series (revival color) approaches Ooi-keibajo-mae Station
 
In September of this year, Tokyo Monorail Company will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Haneda Airport Line. It was opened between Hamamatsu-cho and Haneda stations on September 17th in 1964 as an airport access route from downtown Tokyo to Tokyo International Airport (Haneda). There are 11 stations over a total operating length of 17.8km.

The Haneda Airport Line is the second oldest monorail route in Tokyo. The oldest monorail route is the Ueno Zoo Line, which was constructed as a suspension system monorail in 1957, so to be technically accurate, the Haneda Airport Line is "the oldest straddle-beam system monorail route" in Tokyo.

In commemoration of the 50th anniversary, Tokyo Monorail started to operate a special colored train from January 19th. It is set number 9 of the EMU 1000 series, whose body has a red color with a white stripe. This color design is a revival taken from that of the EMU 500 series in the 1980's. The 500 series has already been retired and scrapped.

The revival color design is my favorite and makes me feel nostalgic. It is better than the current standard body color, as the revival color is more vivid and eye-catching.

Tokyo Monorail, recently, made a press release announcing that the company will introduce a new EMU 10000 series in July of this year for the first time in 17 years. I can't take my eyes off Tokyo Monorail for the time being.

 
EMU Tokyo Monorail 1000 series (revival color) runs along Keihin Canal
 
More information about Tokyo Monorail: http://www.tokyo-monorail.co.jp/english/
Live camera on the Tokyo Monorail Line: http://114.160.215.99/viewer/live/ja/live.html
More information about the EMU 1000 series, revival color (in Japanese):
http://www.tokyo-monorail.co.jp/news/pdf/press_2014115.pdf