‘196s’ at Donnington awaiting entry into traffic

CAF Class 196s are being delivered to Donnington Rail Freight Terminal (near Telford) for further storage.

West Midlands Trains has 12 two-car and 14 four-car diesel multiple units on order, and these should have entered traffic last year.

However, issues surrounding driver training as a result of the pandemic prevented this from taking place, and as of February 5 WMT was still unable to confirm when the DMUs would begin operating.

The ‘196s’ at Donnington have yet to be accepted and so remain under the ownership of the manufacturer.

By February 5, two-car 196006/196007 and three-car 196108 were all at the site - all had been assembled at CAF’s Newport factory.