Odakyu 30000 series EXE

Seven 4+6-car trainsets (70 vehicles) were built between 1996 and 1999 to replace ageing Odakyu 3100 series NSE trains.[1] Unlike earlier Romancecar trainsets, which used articulated carriages, the 30000 series sets have 20 m long bogie cars.[1] The inner driving cabs of the 4+6-car formations have gangway doors.[1]

The passenger doors use 800 mm (31 in) wide sliding doors, with 1,000 mm (39 in) wide doors on cars 2, 5, and 8 to provide wheelchair accessibility.[2]

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  A 30000 series half-set with a gangwayed driving car leading in February 2004
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  The gangwayed intermediate driving cars (cars 6 and 7)
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  The interior of a gangwayed driver's cab

A 30000 series EXE set on a combined Sagami + Enoshima service in December 2007

The 30000 series trains are used on Odakyu Odawara Line Hakone services between Shinjuku in Tokyo and Hakone-Yumoto Station in Kanagawa Prefecture (about 88 km), as well as Sagami and Homeway services. They are also on Odakyu Enoshima Line Enoshima services between Shinjuku and Katase-Enoshima.[1]

Trainsets were introduced on combined Hakone and Enoshima services, with trains dividing at Machida, and later at Sagami-Ono.[2] 10-car Hakone services to Hakone-Yumoto also divide at Odawara with just the 6-car sets continuing onward to Hakone-Yumoto.[2]

As of 1 April 2016, the fleet consists of seven 4+6-car trainsets, formed as follows, with car 1 at the western end.[3] All seven sets are based at Ebina Depot.[3]

Passenger accommodation consists of monoclass unidirectional 2+2 abreast seating, with 460 mm (18 in) wide seats and a seating pitch of 1,000 mm (39 in).[4] The first eight half-sets delivered had green-coloured seats in the six-cars sets (evoking the forests of Hakone) and blue-coloured seats in the four-car sets (evoking the sea of Enoshima), but from 1999 onward, the seats in all sets was standardized with grey and brown seat covers.[2] Wheelchair spaces are located in cars 5 and 8.[3]

Refreshment counters are provided in cars 3 and 9.[2] Toilets are provided in cars 2, 5, and 8, and the toilet in car 5 is a universal access type.[2]

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  The passenger saloon interior in March 2007
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  Seating in March 2007
• 
  A refreshment counter in November 2011

The first trains entered revenue service on 23 March 1996.[2]

Refurbishment

A refurbished "EXEα" six-car set in June 2017

The fleet is scheduled to undergo a programme of refurbishment from fiscal 2016, with the first 4+6-car trainset treated returning to service in March 2017, rebranded "EXEα".[5]

Refurbishment is being carried out by Nippon Sharyo, with the design overseen by Noriaki Okabe Architecture Network. It includes the following changes:

• Redesigned interiors and seating
• Replacement of Japanese-style squat toilets with Western-style toilets (Toto "Washlet" type)
• Additional luggage racks
• LED lighting in passenger saloons[4]
• Installation of security cameras in vestibule and passenger saloons
• Fully enclosed traction motors[4]
• Conversion of one former trailer car (car 3) to a motored car, and the addition of a second motored bogie to car 9, which previously only had one motored bogie.[4]

The first train set to be refurbished, four-car set 30051, was returned to Odakyu from the Nippon Sharyo factory in Toyokawa, Aichi, in November 2016.[6]

The Odakyu 30000 series EXE is featured as a non-driveable train in the Microsoft Train Simulator computer game.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Odakyu 30000 series EXE.

• "Romancecar lineup"