Kintetsu Railway's Class 8A EMUs on the Kyoto Line

Kinki-nippon Tetsudō, a private railway company based in the Kansai region and better known as Kintetsu, will introduce new Class 8A EMUs on the Kyoto line on 7 October 2024. The trains are currently undergoing test runs on the 34.6 km long line between Kyoto and Yamato-Saidaiji. The Kinki Sharyo-built 8As are four-car 1,435 mm gauge EMUs consisting of two driving cars (one end car and one intermediate car) and two trailer cars (one end car and one intermediate car between the driving cars).

Each driving car has four 240 kW traction motors, giving a total power of 1,920 kW. The traction system uses Hybrid SiC semiconductors fed by a 1,500 V DC overhead line. Train acceleration is 3.0 m/s² and deceleration is 4.0 m/s². The line has gradients of up to 35 ‰. The maximum speed is 110 km/h. The coaches are made of extruded aluminium and are each 20,720 mm long, 2,800 mm wide and 4,150 mm high above the top of the rail. Priority seating is provided at the ends of each car, and there are also two multi-purpose areas called Yasashiba (Kindness) near the centre of each car.

Kintetsu is a private railway company with a large network of 501 km in the Kansai region, powered by 1,500 V DC, mostly on 1,435 mm gauge lines but also with some 1,067 mm gauge lines, serving Osaka, Kyoto, Nara, Mie and Aichi prefectures with connections to other networks such as Hanshin Electric Railway, or Osaka and Kyoto Metro. On the Osaka metro lines, trains are powered by a 750 V DC third rail.