The University of Tokyo has taken over one of the Ginza Line 2017 series vehicles (No. 3-10), which finished its last commercial operation on March 01, 1, from Tokyo Metro (Taito-ku, Tokyo).The vehicle will be transported from Nakano Vehicle Base to the University of Tokyo Kashiwa Campus before dawn on March 01, and will be used as a research vehicle in the future.
The University of Tokyo and Tokyo Metro have been conducting joint research on improving vehicle safety for many years.This time, the University of Tokyo requested the transfer of scrapped vehicles for the purpose of further development of railway technology.
The University of Tokyo owns a production technology research institute that conducts driving experiments in Chiba Prefecture, and on April 2017, 4, the function was transferred from Yayoi-cho, Inage-ku, the birthplace of the research institute, to the Kashiwa Campus.The new laboratory has a test line with a total length of about 1 m, has straight lines, curves, railroad crossings, turnouts, etc., and some special rails that are often used overseas are also laid.In addition, it is possible to carry out running experiments on bogies and vehicles, and research on running new structure vehicles such as outer flange type wheels.
Until now, Ginza Line 01 series vehicles have been used by transferring them to Kumamoto Electric Railway and exhibiting them at the Tokyo Metro Museum, but this is the first time they have been transferred for research purposes.Tokyo Metro wants to contribute to the improvement of Japanese railway technology beyond the framework of research so far through this transfer.
