International Railroad Discussion > Chuo Line Green Cars vs. Class 209 (Japan)

Hiroshi-san made a reference to the new service on East Japan Railway's (JR East) Chuo Line while we enjoyed his cherry blossom photos:

https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?6,6004204,6015222#6015222

Green Cars are basically First Class cars with better amenities, like wider, more comfortable seats, folding tables, electric sockets, and overall more comfortable ride - for example, better suspension design. For congested urban lines like the Chuo, Sobu, Yokosuka, Tokaido, Takasaki, Utsunomiya and Joban Lines, especially in/out of central Tokyo, Green Cars are double-decker cars.

Green Cars on faster trains like the Shinkansens and the various 1067 mm gauge ("Cape Gauge") limited express trains have reserved seating. However, Green Cars on Tokyo area urban lines mentioned above are non-reserved seating, first come first served. So there's a chance you might have to stand if you pay for and try to ride the Green Cars in urban areas.

Why? Those who have experienced Tokyo's commute congestion, especially in the 8 am hour will know why. The trains can get so crowded that those who need the extra room are willing to fork over 750 to 1550 yen (Suica digital payment) or 1010 to 1810 yen (paper ticket). On a recent trip, I paid the 750 yen since I was carrying luggage, and I was not going to fit inside the regular cars amongst the commuters. Luckily, I got a seat, too.

While urban Green Car service has been available for about half a century, Chuo Line did not get the service* until October of last year, when Green Cars were being gradually added to JR East's fleet of orange-striped Class E233 cars dedicated to Chuo Line service.

- Green Cars parked at Tokyo Station ("middle deck" at the right edge).
- Upper deck seats from where I was sitting.
- Video clips of Chuo Line Class E233s I documented.

* Limited Express do and Express trains (in the past) did have the service.

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Chuo Line's Green Cars are different from the other urban Green Cars, that they have wider double doors, instead of the narrower single doors. This was done in anticipation of the historically more crowded Chuo Line trains.

Chuo Line's congestion is well known to railfans in Japan, averaging 280+% capacity between 1955 and 1965. That's almost twice more people standing vs. sitting.  Some trains had 300+% capacity, and there were known to be injuries and broken windows during unusual operational events, like emergency braking.

Photos/videos/stories of station attendants pushing people inside the cars are from this era.

Congestion relief took several forms, first being the opening of Eidan Subway (now Tokyo Metro) Tozai Line (in stages from 1964 to 1969) with through services to Chuo Line on the west end and Sobu Line on the east end. Tozai Line itself became victim of congestion soon after, currently the most congested Toko Metro Line - for a future report.
 
Chuo Line's congestion dropped from ~280% to 238% in 1969, but remained 250-260% in the 70s to the beginning of 90s. Slightly better, but still bad. Significant drop happened after the economic bubble burst (mid-1990s), and while the station agents no longer needed to push the passengers in, the trains were still crowded. Unlike the Yamanote Line which lengthened their trains from 10 cars to 11 cars in the 1990s, Chuo Line stayed with 10 car EMU sets the entire time... until now.

Tokyo Metro Tozai Line's Otemachi Station is just north of Tokyo Station, near the center of Tokyo's financial district. 4 other subway lines converge at Otemachi. This effectively migrated "Tokyo terminal" to Otemachi during commutes, and Otemachi is a through station for all 5 subway lines.

I've used the underground passageway between Otemachi and Tokyo before, and it's a shorter walk (4-5 minutes) than to Keiyo Line's Tokyo Station (10+ minutes), the line that goes to Tokyo Disneyland.

Following 3 photos were taken in late 2024, when JR East offered Green Car free trial while the cars were being added to convert 10 car to 12 car sets. Since not all EMU sets in service had the Green Cars yet, JR East did not want to charge money until the official start of service on March 15, 2025. The Green Cars were often standing room only during the free trial period, but I devised several methods to get seats during busy hours, and chose counter commute direction to take the photos. 

- Curious school kids scrambling up the stairs for the upper deck.
- Upper deck.
- Lower deck.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/02/25 05:46 by cchan006.

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Class 209 is a previous generation EMU design from the 1990s, which replaced the venerable Class 103 on several lines in Tokyo. Some sets are still in service, including on Tokyo Metro's Tozai Line with minor modifications for subway operation.

Tokyo Metro's Chiyoda Line also hosted the Class 209. Chiyoda Line provides through service on JR East's Joban Line to Tokyo's northeast suburbs.

So what does Class 209 has to do with the Chuo Line?

When JR East started implementing the 10 --> 12 car Green Car project in 2019, they needed to convert one of the 10 cars (Car #4, which became Car #6) to have a restroom. But Chuo Line didn't need a restroom since the beginning of the use of "modern" Class 101s in the late 1950s so why now?

This conversion added a second restroom for the benefit of the future Green Car passengers, as Car #6 would be right next to Car #5. Cars #4 and #5 out of 12 are where the Green Cars are now. Pay for comfort, you get a moving comfort stop. :-)

JR East anticipated EMU set shortage during the restroom conversion, as they had planned to take 1-2 sets out of service per day. So they moved the just-retired 2x Class 209s from the Joban Line to cover the shortage. This is first time in Chuo Line's modern history that older sets were added to the service. In the past Chuo Line always got upgraded to the newest available designs, Classes 101, 103,  201, and E233. 

The green/teal stripes of the former Joban Line Class 209s were repainted orange to match the Chuo Line colors.

Tokyo's railfan community was all over this one. I stumbled upon several Internet posts and railfan magazine articles on this topic, so I, too documented the Class 209s running on the Chuo Line, knowing full well that this was not going to last long.

Last clip in the first video above has me riding on the upper deck of a Green Car to document the Toyoda Yard where most of the Chuo Line's EMUs are stored. The just re-retired Class 209s should be visible on the tracks closer to the outbound (Kudari) main line that I'm riding on - December 2024.

In the 3rd video (2nd video of this post), you might notice an "under construction" platform extension, and a finished platform extension in the background on some clips. Total of 44 stations had to be lengthened to accomodate the 12 car sets.

- Video of Class 209s at various locations on the Chuo Line. Cab view included.
- Class 209s of both Chuo (orange) and Tozai (light blue) Lines.
- Video capture of Class 209 & platform extension under construction.

(more next)

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I didn't actively seek the 10 car Class E233 EMU sets, but I have enough video clips stored that I was able to find some in reports I chose not to post. This should become nostalgia soon, if not already.

Departing Class 209 meets an arriving Class E233 at Nishi-Kokubunji, first clip

Class E233 blocked by Sobu Line E231 at Asagaya, second clip.

Keihin-Tohoku Line E233 (blue), then Chuo Line E233s meet, then Yamanote Line E235 arrives, at Kanda, last clip. Blocked by E235 but visible in the distance at the end is Keihin-Tohoku Line E233 which had just departed.

That's it for the long, yet still abbreviated report.

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cchan006 Wrote:
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> However, Green Cars on Tokyo area urban lines
> mentioned above are non-reserved seating, first
> come first served. So there's a chance you might
> have to stand if you pay for and try to ride the
> Green Cars in urban areas.
>
In 2012 I rode a Green Car from Kamakura all the way across Tokyo to Narita Airport. This is a conventional train, not a Shinkansen or a limited express. I'm almost certain I had a reserved seat. As a matter of fact, a light glowed over my seat, indicating that it had been reserved. I noticed that when someone else got off, the light over their seat went off, showing it was no longer reserved.

I could have switched to Narita Express, but had plenty of time, and didn't want to deal with switching trains with my suitcases. I believe one train per hour ran directly.

symph1 Wrote:
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> In 2012 I rode a Green Car from Kamakura all the
> way across Tokyo to Narita Airport. This is a
> conventional train, not a Shinkansen or a limited
> express. I'm almost certain I had a reserved seat.

I rode both the Yokosuka/Sobu and Ueno-Tokyo (Tokaido) Line Green Cars in 2021, at the tail end of the pandemic. I'm pretty sure things have changed since 2012, as I was never offered the chance to reserve my seat before boarding/during the ride. Just tap the Suica and turn the red lamp to green.

Green Car attendant or ticket agent might have arranged to have your seat reserved, which was easier to do before JR East embarked on a mass closure of "Midori-no-madoguchi" offices. Slightly off topic, as that "cost cutting" action caused customer backlash, and JR East put a sudden stop to the closures last year, with a handful of offices reopening.
 
> I could have switched to Narita Express, but had
> plenty of time, and didn't want to deal with
> switching trains with my suitcases. I believe one
> train per hour ran directly.

And that's still the case - looking at the paper system schedule now.