Green Mover Max

This law required that operators respect accessibility standards when introducing new rolling stock and provided subsidies as tax-relief and tax-exemptions to compensate for the price differences between conventional cars and the more expensive barrier-free designs.

A year later, in 2001, Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (Japan) brought together a group of eight manufacturers who worked on the latest LF-LRT designs to develop a fully Japanese product.

Specific tasks were allotted to each of the four collaborators - MHI took over bogies, brakes, and inner/outer rigging; Kinki Sharyo focused on design, car body, articulations, and drivers cabin; while Toyo Denki Seizo took responsibility for electric parts and control and drive units.

The result was the "Green Mover Max", a vehicle that had more passenger seats, wider aisles (830 mm (32.7 in) – to enable movement of wheelchairs) and lower dependence on foreign patented technology & component makers.

On Combino cars that had run more than 150,000 km (93,206 mi), cracks were reported on the connections between the sidewalls and the roof girders such that the safety of passengers in the wheel-less modules could not be assured in the event of a severe collision.