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E5 - Blog Posts
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The trains the E10 will replace
Following the announcement of a new Shinkansen type due to enter service on the Tôhoku Shinkansen in 2030, let's have a quick look at the oldest trains on the line, that will be replaced.
The E2 is the oldest high-speed train type that JR East owns, and many examples have already been retired. Built for the slower Jôetsu route to Niigata, they operate the Yamabiko and all-stop Nasuno services.
The E10s will also replace E5 sets. This sounds unreal to me, the E5 is the pinnacle of Shinkansen, still the only train running at 320 km/h in Japan (coupled with the E6, when the couplings work), and still young, having been introduced in 2011! Granted, by 2030, the first E5s will be nearly 20 years old, but they're probably not going to disappear completely in one go.
Photos taken at Utsunomiya station (as far North as I've ever been in Japan).
Heading towards Tokyo, two high-speed Shinkansen lines join up roughly 8 km North of Ômiya. I am riding an E7 train from Nagano, and at the junction, a red E6 coming down from Akita on the other line appears, coupled to a bright green E5 which has come all the way from the Northern island of Hokkaido. Another E5 shoots in the other direction, having just left Ômiya.
My train is overtaking, and I exchange amused waves with the passengers who have just seen an E7 appear out of nowhere in their window, but the long nose of the E5 just gives it the win at Ômiya station.
There could be clearer pictures of these impressive trains in the future, but for now, that's the story behind the blog's banner picture!
Location of the first photo (link to OpenStreetMap)