9 digits in vertical arrangement

Question

Here, 9 digits are given vertically on a board with 4 wings: North, West, South, East.

Your mission is to arrange them horizontally.

Pieces can move any distance in a move.

The first move is clearly to move the digit 7 to the west wing. We can denote it by 7W.

Note that 7W means “to move digit to the West wing” not “to move to the direction of west.”

Answer 1

I have found solution with only

25 moves (consecutive movements of 1 tile is 1 move)
42 moves (every move is counted separately)

Here an animation of the idea:

And for completeness, all steps taken:

25 moves:
7W 6E 5E 4W 5W 6W 8W 3S 2E 1E 8N 6N 5N 4N 7N 1W 2W 3W 9E 7S 4W 5W 6W 8E 7N

42 moves:
7W 6S 6E 5S 5E 4S 4W 5W 6W 8N 8W 3S 2S 2E 1S 1E 8E 8N 6E 6N 5E 5N 4E 4N 7E 7N 1W 2W 3N 3W 9N 9E 7S 4S 4W 5S 5W 6S 6W 8S 8E 7N

Answer 2

We can do it in

26 moves, if we count consecutive movements of 1 tile as 1 move
^{(ex:- 8 North + 8 East = 8 to East wing = 1 move)}
or
43 moves, if we count based on the directions in which a tile is going.
^{(ex:- 8 North + 8 East = 2 moves)}

Using the suggested notation

26 moves

 7W 8W 9W 6W 5W 4S 3S 2E 1E 5N 6N 9N 8N
 7N 1W 2W 3W 4W 7S 8S 9E 8E 6S 5W 6W 7O

43 moves

 7W 8N 8W 9N 9W 6S 6W 5S 5W 4S 3S
 2S 2E 1S 1E 5E 5N 6E 6N 9E 9N 8E
 8N 7E 7N 1W 2W 3N 3W 4N 4W 7S 8S
 9S 9E 8N 8E 6S 5S 5W 6N 6W 7N

Or, if the notation is confusing you,