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The 500 Series “family” was introduced in the first half of the 1950s as the trains of choice for Tokyo’s second subway line, and the first new line built after the second world war, the Marunouchi Line.
The planning inception for the current Marunouchi Line came in the late 1920s as the first comprehensive plans for a subway network in Tokyo were being drawn up after the opening of the Ginza subway line, Tokyo’s first.
A first tentative plan dating from 1932 called for a north-south alignment, dubbed “Line No.4” running from Shinjuku to Otsuka, but this was soon rejected by the Ministry of Finances due to Tokyo’s skyrocketing pubblic debt. At the same time, the Tokyo Rapid Railway (one of the two operators of the Ginza Line, wich owned the section between Shibuya and Shimbashi) was planning to add a branch to it’s line, running northward from Asakasa-Mitsuke to Yotsuya Station – to this end, Asakasa-Mitsuke station had already been predisposed with four platforms split on two floors when it opened in 1938. The outbreak of the second world war and the resulting financial hardship put a solid stop to all extension plans.
In 1941, the two operators of the Ginza Line were merged into the Teito Rapid Transit Authority (or TRTA) by the government, further shelving any extension plans for the forseeable future.
After the end of the war, and with Japan’s economy growing step-by-step, among the necessity to rebuild damaged infrastructure, a new subway masterplan was drawn, based on various pre-war itterations. In particular, several “stretches” were merged togheter: the Asakasa-Mitsuke to Yotsuya section, a modified “Line No.4” alignment between Ikebukuro and Tokyo and an additional section that was planned to connect Shinjuku to Tokyo, the result being a “U-shaped” line connecting almost all major railway terminals.
Approval was granted in 1946 and the route, maintaining the classification of “Line No.4” was allocated additional funding, as it was a key infrastructure project in the context of post-war reconstruction – in particular it was to replace several damaged and overcrowded tramway lines. Construction works finally began in earnest in 1951, at Ikebukuro station, excavating 7,7Km towards Kanda as the line’s first section.
As a matter of simplicity, for the new line TRTA opted to use the same standards as the Ginza Line – primarily the 1435mm standard gague, a 600v DC top-contact third rail and a similar loading gauge with six-car trains with three doors per car, albeit this time a couple of meters longer (18m compared to the 16m per car of the Ginza Line).
However, it was decided to introduce a completely new type of train, instead of adapting or ordering trains based on the Ginza Line’s rolling stock, wich was rather archaic in design (nose-suspended traction motors, riveted carbodies, single-leaf mechanical doors, direct air-brakes, wood-panelled interiors…) and already obsolete. To this end, TRTA sent various engineers to visit several subway systems around the world, as a way to find out new technologies and systems that could be used for the new line’s trains.
The most fruitful collaboration came with the New York City Subway (with wich TRTA had already a long and historical connection – the majority of the technical equipment TRTA was already using was entirely based on US standards and practices, and in some cases even built in the US proper). TRTA’s was particularily interested in the IRT’s (the narrow loading-gauge, numbered lines, current A division) new R14 cars, delivered starting from 1948 and built by American Car Foundry with General Electric or Westinghouse traction equipment, in no small part because they had almost the same loading gague, carbody arrangment, performance specifications and overall design as the trains TRTA intended to purchase for the new line. In particular, TRTA’s engineers were intrigued by the R14s WN-type cardan drive and SMEE electro-pneumatic braking system.
Satistified with their findings, in 1953 TRTA imported two sets of SMEE and WN equipments and fitted them to two purpose-built 1400 Series cars, “testbed” prototypes that were to be put in service on the Ginza Line to test the new equipment.
After some early teething problems, due to the relative inexperience of the technicians and maintainance teams, wich were used to the barebones-like structure of the older Ginza Line trains, instead of the relatively advanced US-made equipment, the tests were deemed a success, with TRTA finally proceeding to place an order for mass-produced trains fitted with SMEE and WN equipment.
Classified as the “300 Series”, 30 individual cars were built by Kisha Seizo, Kawasaki, Nippon Sharyo and Kinki Sharyo with Mitsubishi Electric equipment between 1953 and early 1954.
Note “individual cars”: as derived from the then-current TRTA practice (wich was coincidentally identical to the NYC Subway one), at the time, trains were ordered as single, fully-independent railcars all equipped with cabs at both ends and all the necessary traction equipment – each 300 Series car was technically able to operate fully by itself, with no issues.
Besides the brand-new technical equipment, the 300 Series was also the center of a remarkable design effort: the bodyshell was built without rivets, entirely welded, and the passenger windows were widened so as to lighten the interiors as much as possible. Finally, the most striking fetaure of these trains was their bright scarlet red livery, with a ivory white band under the windows with a decorative stainless steel double-sine wave addition that ran the whole lenght of the cars.
With construction works completed, the new line opened on the 20th of January 1954 as the “Marunouchi Line”, running between Ikebukuro and Ochanomizu (the one-station section to Kanda was cut temporarily from the original plans due to budget constraints), with the 300 Series entering regular service, formed as two-car trains during the day or 4-car trains during the morning and evening rush hours.
Construction works on the remaining portion of the line resumed shortly after, with the Marunouchi Line being extended southwards to Awajicho (instead of the nearby Kanda, as originally planned) in March 1956 and then to Tokyo station in July. To provide rolling stock for the newly-opened sections, new cars were delivered, under the designation of “400 Series”.
These were identical to the earlier 300 Series in all regards, equipment, interiors and specifications, except for the roof design: instead of the older clerestroy-style of the 300 Series, the new 400 Series cars were fitted with a modern full-arch roof. Neverhteless, the 300 and 400 Series remained entirely compatible, interchangeable and able to work in multiple-unit control with each other. Six 400 Series cars were delivered for the extension to Awajicho and 20 more cars were delivered for the extension to Tokyo, followed in April 1957 by another batch of 12 cars to increase the line’s capacity, for a total of thirty-eight 400 Series cars built by Kisha Seizo, Tokyu Car, Kawasaki, Nippon Sharyo and Kinki Sharyo.
Later that year, TRTA opted to extend the planned line beyond Shinjuku to Ogikubo and to add a branch toward Nakano-Sakaue. Finally, as construction works on the rest of the line gradually came to completion, a new batch of cars was ordered yet again, this time classified as the “500 Series”. These cars were entirely based, to the point of being nearly identical, to the 500 Series, however they had one key difference: unlike the previous 300 and 400 Serieses, the 500 Series was ordered as cars fitted with only one cab as opposed to two – this was because TRTA deemed having cars with two driving cabs no longer useful, especially considering that the Marunouchi Line had been operated from the start with two-car sets, and the “single-car” capabilities of the previous series were never used in regular service, nor they were planned to be in the future, in particular on account of the growing ridership.
An initial batch of ten 500 Series cars was delivered in December 1957 for the extension from Tokyo station to Nishi-Ginza (the current Ginza), and were followed by 18 more cars for the extension to Kasumigaseki in October 1958.
40 cars were delivered for the extension to Shinjuku Station in March 1959 and were followed by 12 more in April and 4 more in July, the latter two batches intended to increase the line’s capacity.
Further “line capacity increase” deliveries were made in April (9 cars) and November (16 cars), and around the same time, all trains began to run as 4-car sets.
The first Maronouchi Line westward extension outside the Yamanote Line loop opened in February 1961, with the start of subway services between Shinjuku and Shin-Nakano or Nakano-Fujimicho. Depsite effectively being part of the Marunouchi Line (and using the same rolling stock), this section was officially called the “Ogikubo Line” and was operated separately, altough with some through-services onto the “Marunouchi Main Line”. For this section, a total of 32 new 500 Series cars were delivered, followed by 10 more a few months later. The distinction between the “Ogikubo Line” and the “Marunouchi Line” would become increasingly feeble over time, as the two increasingly became operationally seamless. The name itself would be dropped in 1972 as the two lines were officially merged into one.
Later in 1961, the Ogikubo Line was extended from Shin-Nakano to Minami-Asagaya and then to Ogikubo in January 1962, and in March 1962 the final section of the Marunouchi Line, from Nakano-Fujimicho to Honancho opened, bringing the line to it’s current status. For the opening of all these sections, a total of 35 cars was delivered, and most trains were reformed into 6-car sets.
The end of extension works for the Marunouchi Line wasn’t however the end of rolling stock deliveries – yet more cars entered service to increase the line’s capacity, as it’s ridership gradually grew: 45 additional 500 Series cars, built and delivered between November 1962 and December 1964.
As the 500 Series was built over a long timespan (7 years from 1957 to 1964), a few minor design changes are inevitable – the most prominent being the redesigned destination indicator, wich had it’s side marker lights removed from the 45th car (part of the March 1959 batch) onwards.
The final new cars for the Marunouchi Line were delivered in 1965 – these were the 900 Series trailers – essentially identical to 500 Series trains but without cabs and design to lenghten all remaining trains to six cars. Six 900 Series trailers were delivered in October 1965 and in January 1969 twelve more cars were delivered to increase the number of available trains, in order to increase the frequency of Marunouchi Line services to a train evry 110 seconds, these bearing distinction of being the very last Marunouchi Line “500 Series” cars built.
Therefore, by the early 1970s, TRTA had at it’s disposal a total of 320 cars – fifty-three 6-car trains in service on the Marunouchi “Main Line” (the Honancho Branch Line was operated with the older 100 Series surplus from the Ginza Line) plus a two-car 500 Series set as spare.
After 20 years of service, general repairation works began in 1973 – these included a refurbishment of the interiors, new windows, new electrically-powered wipers, new electrically-powered roller-blind destination indicators, and most importantly, new doors fitted with small square-like windows: these were designed to avoid kids getting their fingers trapped into the door pocket by simply forcing them to look out the windows somewhere else, a simple and effective solution that remained a staple of japanese rolling stock design for many decades, up until the early 1980s.
Since then, the service life of the 500 Series remained relatively uneventful, shuttling up and down the Marunouchi Line between Ikebukuro and Ogikubo, with only two major modifications: in 1982 twelve 300 Series cars had their (long-unused) cabs removed and converted into trailers, and in 1985 their nice, but old-fahsioned and difficult to maintain salmon-pink interior upholstery was changed to the then-standard greyish-white colour standard on TRTA’s trains.
However, by the early-1980s, the 500 Series was starting to show it’s age – after 30 years of intense services, the cars were relatively fatigued. Furthemore, depsite having been revolutionary at the time of it’s introduction, in the early 1950s, the 500 Series was now rather obsolete and inefficient – transportation technology had made huge steps forward in the meantime.
At the time, new trains were being introduced on the Ginza Line to replace the older rolling stock in service until then. These new trains were the “01 Series”, a true far cry from the older stock: lightweight, comfortable and energy-efficient thanks to it’s GTO Chopper control.
With rolling stock replacement ongoing on the Ginza Line, TRTA started considering introducing a derivative of the 01 Series on the Marunouchi Line as well, even if not immediately. After all, a replacement had to come sooner or later, as most cars were by now nearing 30 years of age. Finally, replacement programs were started for good in the second-half of the 1980s, with the introduction and entry into service of the 500 Series’ replacement, the 02 Series, in 1988.
The 02 Series of course was an entirely different concept from the 500 Series, basically a polar opposite: full 6-car sets instead of single-cars coupled togheter, lightweight stainless steel instead of heavy carbon-steel, energy efficient GTO Choppers instead of the old resistor camshaft control, sophisticated microprocessor-controlled equipment instead of simple electro-mechanics and so on.
Manufactured by Nippon Sharyo, Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Kinki Sharyo and Tokyu Car with Mitsubishi Electric equipment (ironically almost the same exact manufacturing arrangment of the 500 Series thirty years earlier), the first sets entered revenue services in October 1988, gradually replacing the various 500 Series cars in service. The first ones to be retired were the 400 Series cars in 1991, followed by the 900 Series in 1994.
In July 1993, many 500 Series surplus cars were reformed into 3-car sets and redeployed to the Honancho Branch Line, replacing the 2000 Series trains that had been in use since 1968. The 500 Series on the “Main Line” instead soldered on for a couple years more, being officially retired in February 1995. The remaining six trains on the Honancho Branch survived a few months more, but were ultimately replaced as well in July 1996 by the 02-80 Series, a small batch of six 02 Series three-car sets designed especially for the Honancho Branch, thus ending a 42-year long career.
As the trains of Japan’s first post-war subway line, the 500 Series were extremely popular and well-known, helped in no small part by it’s distinctive appearance. Such was their iconic status, that already even before the first major withdrawal, demand for used 500 Series cars was extremely high – in the late 1980s TRTA had put on sale a small batch of Marunouchi Line cars for about 400 000 yen each, and they were all sold-out within a few months! Many buyers were major commercial and retail companies, such as the Mitsukoshi Department Store, wich wanted “a piece” of the Marunouchi Line to put on exhibition. This purchase frenzy was in no small part helped by the fact that that was the height of Japan’s financial bubble, when money and expenses were only a very relative issue. In total, eight cars were sold in this way, out of 24 originally planned – not expecting the used cars to be this popular, TRTA cut the list of to-sell cars before the sale even began, a move that many higher-ups within TRTA later regretted!
And the thing doesn’t end here, because TRTA found yet another buyer for second-hand 500 Series cars – the Buenos Aires subway!
Indeed, in the mid-1990s TRTA was approached by officials of Metrovìas, the operator of the newly-privatized Buenos Aires “subte”, wich were looking for suitable rolling stock to replace the dilapdated rolling stock in service at the time on many lines. Due to the financial situation at the time (after the Falklands War, Argentina had entered a deep economic recession, wich worsened year after year and would culminate in a default on debt in 2002), purchasing new rolling stock was out of question, therefore Metrovias looked at what it could purchase second-hand for a relatively low price.
The choice fell on the TRTA 500 Series as Metrovias urgently needed “new” trains for Line B, the only third-rail powered line of the newtork, wich was then operated by the nearly-70-years old Osgood-Bradley and Metropolitan-Cammel-manufactured cars dating from the early 1930s and the extremely unreliable and fire-prone Siemens-Fabbricaciones Militares trains of the 1970s.
Metrovìas purchased a total of 131 500 Series cars, including a vast majority of “proper” 500 Series cars, almost all 900 Series intermediate trailers and seven of the 300 Series cars that had been converted into trailers in 1982.
Out of these, 128 entered service in Argentina in 1995, with little modifications, such as the fitting of running-boards along the cars (to bridge the gap with the platforms designed for wider trains), some modification to the tripcocks and the stripping of equipment from some 500 Series cars used as intermediate cars. Otherwise, the 500 Series trains now in Argentina retained a huge number of fetaures from their Marunouchi Line years, including the original scarlet red livery and stainless-steel sine wave!
Amazingly, many 500 Series trains are still in service in Buenos Aires to this day, 65 years after their manufacture: various attempts at a replacmement were made trought the purchase of second-hand rolling stock from the Madrid metro, in particular ex-5000 Series (built in the mid-1970s by CAF and withdrawn in Buenos Aires in 2018 as they were found to be containing asbestos) and ex-6000 Series trains, wich have suffered from poor reliability and for wich numerous expensive modifications had to be carried out to Line B’s infrastructure. Instead, the 500 Series despite it’s age has gained a reputation for being a well reliable train, and it’s likely to remain in service for the near future, atleast until a worthy replacement can be sourced.
Depsite many sets still soldering on in Buenos Aires, many have been retired, replaced by the ex-Madrid stock, and scrapped in Argentina as well. With the retirement of the 500 Series planned many times, Tokyo Metro, the successor to TRTA, took interest in “bringing back home” what were essentially perfectly functioning 500 Series trains. Tokyo Metro went trough, and in 2016 it “bought back” four 500 Series cars from Metrovias, had them shipped to Japan and restored to their original condition at it’s own workshops at Nakano and Shin-Kiba depots.
As of today, these four cars have been cosmetically restored, with a further restoration to perfect working order planned. Besides these four, a large number of 500 Series cars have been preserved: car 301 (the very first 300 Series unit) is preserved and on display inside Tokyo Metro’s own museum at Kasai Station, car 319 was sold to a Golf Club in Chiba prefecture, 400 Series car 454 is preserved and on display at the Poppo-No-Oka Museum in Chiba Prefecture, car 440 is on the premises of a Kindergarten near Hotoke Station on the Seibu Ikebukuro Line and cars 444, 451, 456, 459, 437, 461 and 464 were sold to private individuals, with the first four having been later scrapped, and the whereabouts of the latter three being currently unknown. 500 Series car 664 was sold to a resident of Miyazaki Prefecture and it’s now on display near Hyugashi Station on the Nippo Main Line and cars 652 and 685 were donated free-of-charge by TRTA to the Hachioji Children’s Science Museum and to the Tokyo College of Transportation respectively.
Trivia #1:
The scarlet colour of the cars was inspired by the British Benson & Hedges cigarettes, wich TRTA’s then-president Kyohide Suzuki and Tane Higashi, the director of the rolling stock department, purchased on-board an aircraft while returning from one of the “overseas exploration” trips. The stainless steel sine wave decoration was instead designed by students of the Tokyo University of Fine Arts.
Trivia #2:
Ironically, the New York Subway R14s, the main inspiration behind the 500 Series, would later be replaced in the 1980s by the R62 trains, built in Japan by Kawasaki.
Trivia #3
In the late 1980s, due to the strong connections between the two systems, New York’s MTA inquired with Tokyo’s TRTA for the eventual purchase of one or two 500 Series cars to put on display in the New York Transit Museum – unfortunately MTA arrived a little too late: all remaining cars had already been either sold to Argentina or scrapped in Japan.
Trivia #4:
While in Buenos Aires, the 500 Series trains were known as the “Mitsubishi” Trains, as they fetaured a prominent Mitsubishi three-diamond logo on the controller – Mitsubishi Electric was after all the manufacturer of all the electrical equipment these trains used.
Trivia #5
After retiring some of it’s 500 Series cars, Metrovìas had some put on “pubblic” sale as well, mirroring what TRTA had done in the late 1980s. The base price of a 500 Series car was set at 120 000 Argentinian pesos (478€, 520USD or 71000 JPY). Some have been reportedly purchased and are in use as food courts.
Trivia #6
Due to it’s iconic looks, the 500 Series has been fetaured in countless animes set in pre-1990s Tokyo, such as Lupin the Third, City Hunter, Cat’s Eyes and X-Densha de Ikou, as well as live-action films as well, both domestic japanese production as well as major international ones – among these, the 1967 “You Only Live Twice” James Bond movie fetauring Sean Connery, where a 500 Series train is depicted as part of a “secret” subway network used by Tiger Tanaka, the fictional head of an equally fictionalized Japanese Secret Service.
Trivia #7
The 500 Series was such a key to a “1960s Tokyo” setting that some scenes of the 2000 live-action movie “Blood: The Last Vampire” were specifically shot on the Buenos Aires subway, fetauring 500 Series trains.
Trivia #8
The 500 Series hold the distinction of having been one of the very few (if not the only) subway train that “gave a colour” to multiple of it’s lines: in the 1950s, as the Marunouchi Line neared it’s opening date, discussions on wich colour it should be on the map were settled almost immediately for the trains’ scarlet red – this however wasn’t always so obvious (for example, for a time the Hibiya Line was coloured blue on the maps, and the Toei Asakusa Line was often depicted as a thin grey line).
The same thing happened in Buenos Aires in the late 1990s, as the maps were being redesigned – red as Line B’s colour was the easiest choice: passengers were now already used to red trains!
