Seibu acquires EMUs from other private railways

The private railway Seibu (Seibu Tetsudō Kabushiki-gaisha) with 177 km long network in north western part of Greater Tokyo region announced in 2022 that it will adopt a policy to acquire used trains from other railways instead of buying new EMUs. This decision was made after falling profit margin during COVID-19, which until then is still falling. The policy to acquire and modernize older trains should lower costs and is also marketed as to be environmentally sustainable. The product got the name Sustainable Train (サステナ車両 in Japanese)

As a result of this policy in autum 2023 Seibu announced that for branch lines Kokubunji and Chichibu they will acquire 100 cars of the Class 9000 from private railway Tokyu a 60 more cars of Class 8000 EMU from private railway Odakyu. The symbolic handover of the Odakyu driver keys to Seibu took place on 24 May 2025 at Seibu-Shinjuku station.

The Odakyu Class 8000 was built between 1982 and 1987 by Nippon Sharyo, Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Tokyu Car Corporation, initially with GTO traction inverters, but later during service life modernized to IGBT. In 2002 also interior was modernized and modern information system including LCD pannels installed. In this view the EMUs are still modern and will bring valuable energy savings when replacing oldest Seibu EMUs with the resistor regulation and DC traction motors (an example, Class 2000 built in 1977).

The modifcations needed to operate them on Seibu network require to replace ATP or pantographs and changing livery and railway logos, otherwise they are quite minor. The first acquired “Sustainable EMU” Seibu Class 8000 will be in service from 31 May 2025, and the transfer of both types to Seibu fleet is about to be finished until end of 2030.

The Tokyu Class 9000 is a similar story. Those EMUs were built between 1986 and 1991 and have GTO thyristors with VVVF control (variable voltage, variable frequency), as well as regenerative braking. During their service life, they were modernised and equipped with better air conditioning and an information system.