For Our Customers
The Tobu Group endeavors to enhance convenience for our customers by identifying their needs and creating and providing various services based on those needs, such as the establishment of the Tobu Railway Customer Center. In addition to introducing the services of the Tobu Group, such as the publication of public relations magazines, the Tobu Group aims to increase customer loyalty to the Tobu Group, including sharing useful information and creating a community for our customers, as part of our aim to achieve sustainable development for communities and businesses along railway lines.
Tobu Railway Customer Center
As part of our system for listening to customer feedback, we have established the “Tobu Railway Customer Center” to respond to feedback by telephone and email.
- Business hours: 9:00 ~ 18:00 (open all year round, except for the year-end and New Year holidays)
- TEL.: 03-5962-0102
- Service for:
- (1) Reservation of limited express tickets, etc.
- (2) Inquiries (lost items)
- (3) Inquiries (train schedules, fares, sightseeing information along the line, etc.)
- (4) Opinions and requests
Tobu Railway shares the voice of customers internally to make improvements.
In addition to introducing the examples of improvements on our website, we also engage in public relations activities by creating etiquette posters and other materials and posted them in stations and trains to encourage customer understanding and cooperation.
Publication of “Monthly Tobu”
“Monthly Tobu” has a history of more than 70 years since its first issue in April 1951 as a monthly public relations magazine. The purpose of the magazine is to help increase loyalty to the Tobu railway lines by providing information on the Tobu Group and various other topics to our customers.
The magazine introduces not only the various initiatives of the Tobu Group, but also the attractions of the areas along our railway lines, and features interviews and essays by writers, actors, and athletes who are at the forefront of the times. It is our aim to coexist and co-create with our customers by providing them with various pieces of information so that they can experience the cultural wealth in their daily lives along our railway lines.
Monthly Tobe URL:https://www.tobu.co.jp/monthly/
PR magazine “Monthly Tobu”
Tobu Railway launches TOBU Kids, a website for kids
This site is a participatory, hands-on website mainly for elementary school children, and offers various pieces of content for parents and children to enjoy. In FY2019, we introduced an official LINE account as a communication tool to strengthen the dissemination of the Tobu Group’s information for kids. We will continue to communicate with our customers by developing the site as a “Tobu Group kids portal site” in collaboration with Tobu Group companies.
The site also hosts participatory events, mainly during long holidays, to promote a deeper understanding of the Tobu Group’s business.
TOBU Kids:https://www.tobu-kids.com/
TOBU Kids Spacia X 1st Anniversary Event
Operation of “trains with seat reservation”
In order to meet the needs of commuters and families with children for a comfortable trip to the city center, we operate trains with reserved seats.
TJ Liner
TJ Liner began operating on the Tojo Line in 2008 as a limited-seat train to improve the seating service from Ikebukuro Station, and is used by many passengers every day. In 2016, we began operating inbound trains during morning commuting hours, and in March 2023, we added a new inbound train on weekends and holidays to make our service even more accessible.
TH Liner
“TH Liner” is the train with reserved seats that operates directly on the Tobu Line and the Tokyo Metro Hibiya Line, which started service in 2020. Taking advantage of the direct connection between central Tokyo and suburban areas, the service operates between Kuki Station on the Tobu Isesaki Line and Ebisu Station on the Tokyo Metro Hibiya Line (outbound train departs from Kasumigaseki Station on the Hibiya Line).
Effective utilization of on-board data
In FY2021, we introduced the “Remote” system, which identifies and analyzes data such as occupancy rates, interior temperatures, and driving patterns for operating vehicles. Through this system, we will further ensure stable operation, improve transportation services, and promote energy-saving operation.
In FY2024, in addition to the new Series 80000 trains (scheduled to run on the Tobu Urban Park Line), we will expand the introduction of this system to the Series 500 trains (Limited Express Liberty) and Series 50000 trains (operated on the Tobu Skytree Line and the Tojo Line).
Formation of a “wide-area railway network”
With the opening of the Sotetsu and Tokyu Shin-Yokohama Lines in March 2023, a wide-area railway network will be established, extending from the central Kanagawa region and western Yokohama City to the western 23 wards and northern Tama district of Tokyo, and the central and western Saitama region.
Sotetsu/Tokyu's Shin-Yokohama Line will operate directly with Sotetsu, Tokyu, Tobu, Tokyo Metro, Toei Subway, and Saitama Rapid Transit to promote inter-regional cooperation and revitalization.
The new line, which will form an extensive railway network connecting 14 lines of 7 companies and stations, has improved transportation convenience and speed by shortening travel time and reducing the number of transfers, and has access to Shin-Yokohama Station on the Tokaido Shinkansen Line, making business travel and travel from the Tokyo metropolitan area to the Kansai and Chukyo regions even more convenient.
Launch of “real-time notification service for crew members,” for the first time on a limited express operated by a private railway company
From March to the end of December 2024, Tobu Railway and Science Arts are conducting a demonstration test of a service that enables crew members to receive real-time notifications when a passenger wishes to use the multipurpose room on the Limited Express Spacia X, utilizing new functions of the live communication platform “Buddycom.”
The Spacia X has a multipurpose room that can be used by nursing mothers or when passengers feel unwell. Because the room is locked during normal times, however, passengers must tell a crew member making rounds inside the train when they wish to use it. This made it difficult to use the room in a timely manner.
In this service, a passenger uses their smartphone to scan a two-dimensional code on a sticker for alerting crew members that is displayed in the train and notifies a crew member, enabling crew members to quickly respond by checking their tablets. In this way, we will provide an environment where passengers can travel with ease, particularly those nursing infants.
At the same time, this notification service will also be installed on the deck of Car 6 (cockpit suite compartment entrance), and the service will be available in multiple languages, contributing to further improving convenience.
Start of demonstration test for “real-time captions for multilingual translation”
In response to the rapidly increasing number of tourists from outside Japan and as a measure to address diversity, in July 2024, Tobu Railway and Pixie Dust Technologies, a technology company founded by the University of Tsukuba, launched a demonstration test, in which they installed "VUEVO Displays" at station counters and other locations, to display real-time multilingual translations of spoken language, and have been verifying its usefulness as a communication tool within station grounds.
In this demonstration test, we used “VUEVO Displays” at ticket gates and other locations in Tobu Railway's Asakusa Station, Tokyo Skytree Station, Tobu Nikko Station, and Kawagoe Station, which have a large number of foreign passengers, to provide multilingual translation functions and real-time captions for approximately 100 countries. In this way, the installation of the displays was aimed at verifying the provision of barrier-free information services at stations frequented by many foreign passengers.
This demonstration test aims to increase the added value of tourism services in the Tobu Group as part of the “TOBU Open Innovation Program,” a business co-creation program utilizing open innovation that the Company has been conducting since 2021. Going forward, we will continue to work with external companies through this business co-creation program to further enhance convenience for our customers.
