On September 30, Kintetsu (Kinki Nippon Railway Co., Ltd.) held a test-ride event for interested parties of its new Series 8A general-purpose railcars. The following is a report on the event and an overview of the Series 8A. The “8” stands for the line section to which it belongs (Nara Line, Kyoto Line, and Kashihara Line), and the “A” stands for the train grouping.
The test ride was a round trip from Osaka Uehonmachi to Higashi-Hanazono Station on the Nara Line, taking about two hours. The Nara, Kyoto, Kashihara, and Tenri lines are in operation since October 7, 2012. The Nara Line was the site of the test-ride event.
Creating Value for New Kintetsu Trains
The Series 8A is not merely a replacement for aging trains. We want to increase the attractiveness and value of Kintetsu trains so that more people will live along Kintetsu lines and use the trains. That is the kind of mission we are charged with.
So what can the hardware of the vehicle do? The idea was to be able to meet the various needs of different passengers.
For example, the interior of Series 8A cars is furnished with “L/C seats,” which can be switched between long seats and cross seats, a feature Kintetsu has used extensively for some time.
Recently, an increasing number of trains in the Tokyo metropolitan area have been equipped with this type of seat in order to operate paid seating trains in the morning and evening. In the case of Kintetsu, however, since there is a separate paid express service, the L/C seats are only “to meet diverse needs.
Conventional L/C seats were designed to be long or cross-seated in their entirety. The 8A Series, however, is a new innovation that divides the train interior into multiple blocks and allows passengers to switch between long and cross seats individually. This new feature allows passengers to switch between long seats and cross seats individually. In fact, in some cases, only the center of the car was used for cross seats in commercial operation.
An interesting feature is the destination indicator on the side of the train. Taking advantage of the LEDs’ ability to flexibly change the display content, “hiragana” is displayed in addition to the standard Japanese and English. This makes it easy to read, even for small children who have not yet learned to read kanji.
And the new innovation of the 8A Series, already widely reported, is the “Yasashiba. In addition to priority seating and wheelchair spaces at the ends of the cars, two such spaces are provided per car. Specific users expected to use this space include “parents and children pushing strollers” and “travelers with large suitcases.
Whether it is a stroller or a suitcase, it takes up a certain amount of space in the car. It would be a concern to bring them into a normal long seat car or a cross seat car. Therefore, a large space was secured by the door. The space is evenly distributed in all cars, not just a part of the train, so that passengers do not have to make large movements on the platform or inside the car to use the space.
And “Yasashiba” was devised to be flexible in use by making it a corner-type sitting area. When actually trying it out, one can sit parallel to the direction of travel, at a right angle, or even at an angle. A stopper is also installed to prevent the suitcase from moving on its own.
However, since this is a new type of facility, we will have to see how users make the best use of it. It may be said that this is a facility to be nurtured by users.
In addition, for the first time on a Kintetsu rail line train, side doors can be opened and closed with a push button (a precedent has been set on steel cable lines). This is intended to maintain an appropriate temperature inside the car when the train is stopped for long periods of time.
© Source travel watch
Auto Amazon Links: No products found.
Auto Amazon Links: No products found.