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Shinkansen rolling stock·1 min read

E3 Series Shinkansen

新幹線E3系電車

The E3 series is a Japanese Shinkansen high-speed train type built by the East Japan Railway Company (JR East) for "mini-Shinkansen" through services, introduced in 1997 for Komachi services on the new Akita Shinkansen, which was formed by regauging the 1,067 mm narrow-gauge line between Morioka and Akita to 1,435 mm standard gauge (both infoboxes give the 0-series start as 22 March 1997). Like the earlier 400 series it was built to a smaller loading gauge than full-size Shinkansen stock, so the cars are narrower and carry retractable gap fillers to bridge the wider platform gap, running at a maximum of 275 km/h on the Shinkansen trunk and 130 km/h on the regauged conventional sections, with a 315 km/h design speed.

JR East E3 series set R22 at Tokyo Station.
JR East E3 series set R22 at Tokyo Station. — Sakura Torch · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

History

On the Tohoku Shinkansen the sets run coupled to a full-size train to and from Tokyo, having been worked with up to two units of the 200, E2, E4 or E5 series (capped at 240 km/h when coupled to the 200 or E4). Later seven-car variants served Yamagata Shinkansen Tsubasa duties: the E3-1000 series from 4 December 1999, augmenting the 400 series after the line's extension to Shinjo, and the E3-2000 series from 20 December 2008, built as the replacement for the 400 series.

Two E3-0 "R" sets were also rebuilt into E3-700 series tourist trains: the Toreiyu (running as Toreiyu Tsubasa, with tatami seating and foot baths) on the Yamagata Shinkansen from July 2014 to March 2022, and the Genbi Shinkansen art-gallery train on the Joetsu Shinkansen from 29 April 2016 to December 2020. Following the introduction of the E6 series from 2013, the E3 ended regular Akita Komachi service at the 15 March 2014 timetable revision, and the later E8 series displaced it from Tsubasa service, with the E3-1000 withdrawn in March 2024 and the E3-2000 ending scheduled Tsubasa operation in December 2025.

Timeline
  • 1997E3-0 series "R" sets enter service on Akita Shinkansen Komachi services, coinciding with the opening of the regauged Akita mini-Shinkansen (Morioka-Akita); both EN and JA infoboxes give the 0-series start as 22 March 1997.
  • 1999Seven-car E3-1000 series "L" sets enter Yamagata Shinkansen Tsubasa service from 4 December, augmenting the 400 series fleet following the line's extension to Shinjo.
  • 2008First of twelve seven-car E3-2000 series sets enters Yamagata Shinkansen Tsubasa service on 20 December; the type is built as the replacement for the 400 series.
  • 2014E3 series ends regular Akita Shinkansen Komachi operation at the 15 March timetable revision, replaced by the E6 series (introduced from 2013); the six-car E3-700 Toreiyu excursion set enters service on the Yamagata Shinkansen in July.
  • 2016The E3-700 Genbi Shinkansen art-gallery excursion set (rebuilt from set R19) enters service on the Joetsu Shinkansen on 29 April; it is withdrawn in December 2020.
  • 2024Following the introduction of the E8 series at the March timetable revision, the remaining E3-1000 series sets are withdrawn from regular Tsubasa service.

Sources

Facts last verified 3 June 2026.

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