With regard to East Japan Railway Company's inspection with monitoring devices, a cab
monitoring system was installed in System 209.
The cab seen in the photograph is where the monitoring system is installed. Also shown
are the monitored cylinder conditions of each rail car. The cab monitoring system can
monitor operation route display, accident data, the VVVF control system, partial onboard
inspection for the ATS system, announcing device, air conditioning device control, power
and braking command, and reset and release of devices.
3
Future Issues
Lastly, I would like to introduce issues to be solved in the future.
Concerning the rail car, mass production of System 209 has only just started, and many
issues remain to be solved. First is the need to produce more completely maintenance- free
cars. We anticipate being able to achieve most of our goals for electric parts, but the
mechanical parts pose future problems relating to deterioration and durability of the air
brake, bogie, pantograph parts, etc. We will do more research on new materials and shapes
based on the theory of car and ground facility boundary, and on the new function and
structure of the hydraulic brake, etc.
Another issue is the rail car installation of a self-inspection system. I have said
that East Japan Railway Company has, for the first time with commuter trains, inspected
car functions with a monitoring system. By further improving this onboard functional
inspection, we will conserve labor for car functional inspections conducted by railway
divisions.