East Japan Railway Company (JR East) unveiled the design of its next-generation E927 Shinkansen inspection train, giving the seven-car train the nickname “Soar”. UK design consultancy tangerine oversaw the design development of the train, having joined the project from its earliest stages.
As part of the process, JR East invited employees across the JR East Group to submit original design concepts for the E927’s livery. A winning design was selected by JR East and tangerine from an internal design competition, with the proposal from Mr Hori chosen as the winner. tangerine will continue to work with Mr Hori and the JR East project team to refine the design, with completion of the vehicle’s detailed exterior design expected by around autumn 2026.
The livery retains East-i’s white base colour, with red representing courage and green representing the idea of soaring, inspired by the image of wings. The letter O in Soar, which resembles the number zero, was chosen to reflect the company’s aim of zero accidents.
Speaking at a news conference, JR East president Yoichi Kise said inspections would be safer as they could be performed under the same speed conditions as commercial operations.
The E927 is being developed as the successor to the current East-i (E926 series) inspection train and is scheduled to enter inspection service in Japan’s 2029 fiscal year. Its maximum speed will increase from 275 kilometres per hour to 320 kilometres per hour, and it will inspect the Tohoku, Joetsu, Hokuriku, Yamagata and Akita Shinkansen lines.
The train will be based on the E11 high-speed train, currently under development, and will feature an underfloor sensor system tested on the experimental ALFA-X train. New inspection equipment includes a PQ estimation system, which measures forces acting between wheels and rails using sensors installed on the bogies, and an onboard imaging system using 48 cameras positioned on cars one, three and seven to record infrastructure and trackside conditions in detail.
tangerine, which has studios in London and Seoul, also oversaw the design of JR East’s E10 Shinkansen, due to enter service on the Tohoku Shinkansen line in 2030. The consultancy was the first overseas designer contracted by JR East for its rolling stock.
