Chuo East Line: how long do the 211s have?

[Kyouhei]

With all the new stock for JR East and more on the way, such as the Chiba area re-fleeting, it has me thinking: what about the 211s still running Chuo East Line locals and rapids? I have yet to see a timetable for their replacement, and other than perhaps cascaded E231s I don't see any obvious candidates. Shizuoka-ken saying "no" to JR Central about the maglev-river problem probably gave them even more time.

 

I've always wanted to ride the 441M local, the one that runs all the way from Takao to Nagano. Kinda hoping the maglev is stalled long enough for me to experience that!

[railsquid]

I'm not sure what the connection between JR Tokai's Maglev line and JR East's local Chuo Line services is?

 

I haven't heard anything, but if you want my personal speculation (waves hand vaguely in the air) I'd bet the next E235 order, once the E217s are replaced, will be to replace the E231s on the longer distance lines south/north of Tokyo, which will free those up to be cascaded down.

[Kyouhei]

1 minute ago, railsquid said:

I'm not sure what the connection between JR Tokai's Maglev line and JR East's local Chuo Line services is?

 

I haven't heard anything, but if you want my personal speculation (waves hand vaguely in the air) I'd bet the next E235 order, once the E217s are replaced, will be to replace the E231s on the longer distance lines south/north of Tokyo, which will free those up to be cascaded down.

I was thinking that the opening of the Shinkansen line would mean the end of the really long-distance locals, like Takao-Matsumoto and Nagano-Enzan, along with the conventional limited express services. I know they aren't the same company, but JR East wouldn't have much of a reason to run the long-distance locals if the maglev were to open. Again, like you, just speculation.

 

Who knows, maybe I'm just thinking about this in a weird fashion.

[railsquid]

The Maglev route doesn't really run close to the existing Chuo Line, and doesn't duplicate existing services. On the JR East side, IIRC the Maglev will serve Shinagawa - somewhere south of Kofu before zipping off west to the Iida area, but that's not going to replace existing Chuo Line services from Shinjuku.

[disturbman]

Without taking geography in consideration, these would be different services. The Maglev will probably have a super express surcharge that would price out people using local/commuter services.

[Das Steinkopf]

I think the closest that you will get to having an interchange where you can jump onto a JR East 211 Series will be at Iida where you can travel on the northern end of the Iida-sen to either Tatsuno or Okaya and then jump onto the Chuo East Line from there, given the Maglev will be owned and operated by JR Central there will be a lot more focus on connecting with stations that are part of their network rather than the competition.

Edited April 23, 2021 by Das Steinkopf

[railsquid]

Ι think the biggest effect on service patterns will be on the existing Tokaido Shinkansen line, I've read something ("citation needed") along the lines of there being plans to shift focus more towards increased commuter services, with e.g. a new station at the recently popular and notoriously overcrowded Musashi-Kosugi.