JAPAN: Tokyo Metropolitan Bureau of Transportation awarded Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Engineering a contract on June 16 covering the supply of a further 12 five-car Series 330 trainsets for the Nippori-Tonerei Liner rubber-tyred automated guideway transit line, which runs 9·7 km from Nippori to Minumadai-Shinsuikoen.
The 600 V DC third rail vehicles are scheduled to enter service in 2022, replacing the 16 Series 300 sets supplied by Niigata Transys in 2007-08. These have seats in bays on either side of a centre aisle in a configuration which provides insufficient space for standing passengers at peak periods.
An intial three Series 330 sets were built by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in 2015, with longitudinal seating to increase capacity. One Series 320 train built by Niigata Transys entered service in 2017.
The Series 330 sets have lightweight aluminium alloy bodyshells and one powered and one non-powered bogie per car. The end cars are 8 550 mm long and the intermediate cars 8 500 mm long, with all being 2 900 mm wide and 3 340 mm high above the guideway. The tare weight of the five-car formation is 53 tonnes, and up to 262 passengers can be carried.
