215 series

The trains were built jointly by Hitachi and Nippon Sharyo. The trains were developed to accommodate the increasing number of long-distance commuters along the Tōkaidō Main Line and to provide seated services and express services using the parallel freight lines. The bilevel designs are based on the Green car of the 211 series and the prototype Kuha 415-1901 of the 415 series. Excluding the leading cars, all cars are bilevel with ordinary-seating cars fitting at most 120 passengers. A set can carry up to 1010 passengers. As the train was intended to be operated only on the warmer Tōkaidō Main Line, it was not designed to withstand the cold or snow. As such, the train operated on the Chūō Main Line only between spring and autumn. ==Formation==

All sets consisted of 10 cars with only the first two cars at each end powered. Cars 4 and 5 were "Green" (first class) cars. ==Interior==

File:215 series Green Car seat 20060618.jpg|Lower level Green car seating File:Seat of JR 215.JPG|Lower level ordinary class seating File:Priority Seat of JR 215.JPG|Priority seat in lower level ordinary class saloon ==History==

The first trainset was delivered in March 1992, and entered service from 4 April 1992 ==References==