Sunday 7 September 2014

Thinking of the Disaster City

Unit number 809 of the electric car, Hiroden Type 800 arrives at Dobashi Stop
 
We had broken weather this summer in Japan. It was very hot in the first half. The daytime maximum temperature in many places often reached 35 degrees Celsius. On the other hand, it was rainy every day in the second half of the summer. Many areas in Japan were subjected to torrential rain. Especially, a typhoon caused heavy damage to Hiroshima City, some 900 km west of Tokyo. According to the Japan Meteorological Agency, Hiroshima saw 120 mm (4.74 inches) of rainfall in just one hour. Many houses were destructed by multiple mudslides along the Chugoku Mountains. I hope that local people quickly got over the shock of this disaster.

Speaking of Hiroshima, I am going to show you an electric car in Hiroshima City with my feeling for local people. As I mentioned before, Hiroshima is well known as Japan's largest tram network city. Its total operating length is 35.1km. The track gauge is 1,435mm and the electric system is 600V DC overhead. Currently, 299 units are operated on the tracks.
 
The electric car 800 series is one of the major fleets on the Hiroshima Electric Railway (Hiroden). It was commissioned as a new standard streetcar model in 1983. A total of 14 units have been manufactured so far by Alna Koki. Each one is 13.5 m or 13.68 m long, and carries 91 passengers.
 
The electric car 800 series will take part in the activity of reconstruction of the city as vigorous urban transporters.

Unit number 808 of the electric car, Hiroden Type 800 stands at Yokogawa Terminal