Railways Illustrated – our opinion

The Class 196 is the second Caf-built DMU design to enter service in the UK, following on from the Class 195s that have been in use on Northern since 2019.

West Midlands Railway has pipped Transport for Wales with the Class 196s carrying passengers, ahead of the similar Class 197s due to be launched into service by TFW in the near future.

We travelled on 196101 Charles Darwin on October 28, less than a fortnight after the new train had first carried passengers, to see what it was like and how it compared to the Class 197 we examined at Chester station in July (see Railways Illustrated issue 235).

As with all new trains, there is always a certain initial feel-good attitude from passengers who notice when something new replaces the trains they are used to travelling on. The Class 196 is a smart unit that should be welcomed, with its modern interior and facilities a marked improvement on the Class 170s they are replacing, which are now starting to show their age internally. Hopefully, the long-promised internal upgrades of the Class 170s will be forthcoming once they have made the transfer to East Midlands Railway. As a train that has been built to serve a highly-populated area of the country, the design manages to fit in a lot of seats, with the two-coach Class 196/0 featuring 141 seats and the four-coach Class 196/1, such as the one we travelled on, boasting 311 seats.

There are also 22 table bays of four seats on the Class 196/1, with the rest of the seats in pairs, with drop-down tray tables provided.

The seats are reasonably comfortable, finished in a dark grey moquette with lighter grey and orange diamond flecks that looks smart. Although the seats are a little on the firm side, this could be down to the newness of the train – and they are certainly more comfortable than some other designs currently in service.

WMR boasts that the new train has power points at every seat, but this is slightly misleading as there is a plug socket and a USB charging point for each pair of seats, so these would need to be shared by two passengers who want to use the sockets to either power a laptop or charge a mobile phone.

The trains also feature free wi-fi and air-conditioning.

The train layout also incorporates two toilets, including one wheelchair-accessible toilet to comply with legislation, along with two dedicated wheelchair spaces with associated help points, and space for the carriage of up to three bicycles. Being more suited as a commuter train, luggage storage is rather limited, although the overhead storage shelves are relatively deep.

In terms of ride quality, the journey was fairly smooth, and the diesel engines weren’t excessively loud when accelerating.

In the past, there have been comments made over the poor ride quality of some Caf-built trains, but this seemed to be okay during our journey and certainly not as bad as some other modern train designs we have travelled on.

Andy Coward 196101 Charles Darwin stands on Platform 8A at Birmingham New Street on October 28 following arrival from Shrewsbury. The unit then ran out of service back to Tyseley Depot for stabling, although it is expected that further diagrams will utilise the new Caf-built DMUS over the coming weeks.

Andy Coward The internal layout of the West Midlands Railway Class 196/1. The four-coach train has seating for 311 passengers, with the majority of seats arranged in a 2x2 layout, although each Class 196/1 also has 22 four-seat table bays.