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E10 - Blog Posts
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).
E10 Shinkansen coming soon!
The Japanese railway companies don't make prototypes for the lols. JR East's ALFA-X project will come to fruition with the E10, due to start testing in 2027 and enter commercial service in 2030.
Also of note in the announcement, is that JR East will run freight-only high speed trains, using retiring E3 Series trains (these are currently being replaced by new E8s). I remember that during the pandemic, the empty Shinkansens were used to transport fresh fish. As far as I can tell, this would be the first regular high-speed freight service since the French Post Office's TGVs which retired in 2015.