Train cars featuring large open spaces for baby strollers and wheelchairs are becoming more common in the Tokyo metropolitan area. Seibu Railway pioneered the design, and Keio Corp. will introduce similar cars starting early next year. Parents traveling with young children have welcomed the changes for easier train use.
In late October, Keio Corp. held a ceremony to unveil a new train car model with large open spaces. Guest speaker Miki Fujimoto, a 44-year-old TV personality and mother of three children aged 5 to 13, shared her past difficulties. “Until recently, other passengers complained and told me to fold up [my stroller],” she said, highlighting challenges in traveling by train with a stroller and bags. Fujimoto expressed pleasure with the new cars: “We will have a space allowing various people [including those raising children and wheelchair users] to ride trains with a sense of relief.”
Keio's 2000 series trains, set to operate from late January, each have 10 cars, with 14 seats removed from one to create the open space. The cars feature large windows so young children can view the scenery. The company aims to boost usage among child-rearing families and the elderly, who avoided trains during the COVID-19 pandemic when commuters dropped. Among its current 84 trains and 726 cars, Keio plans to replace one car in four trains with this design by March 2027. A Keio official stated, “We want people of any generation to use our trains.”
A 2014 report by the Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Ministry urged, “Operators of public transportation should accommodate those with baby strollers so that they do not need to fold them up.” Yet, stroller users often skip rush hours or opt for slings amid congestion. Seibu Railway introduced such spaces in 2017, with one car per 26 trains on lines including Ikebukuro and Shinjuku. The Tokyo metropolitan government's Toei Subway added them in 2019, including two cars per 71 trains on Mita, Asakusa, Shinjuku, and Oedo lines, decorated with child-friendly characters.
However, these cars remain limited and little known. Chuo University Prof. Tetsuo Akiyama, an urban transport planning expert, noted, “These high-quality measures for accessibility are a new movement. It is necessary to spread the word so that not only child-rearing generations but many other people will understand that good spaces have been introduced.” Takuya Ogawa, deputy chief of the ministry’s Policy Division for Inclusive Society, said, “We will make efforts to increase the number of train cars in which everybody can easily ride.”