New class 196 DMUs for West Midlands Railway

Background

In 2017, West Midlands Railway placed an order with Spanish manufacturer CAF for 26 new DMUs (diesel multiple units) to replace class 170 Turbostar units on Birmingham to Hereford, Birmingham to Shrewsbury and Leamington Spa to Nuneaton services. An archived version of a West Midlands Railway web page suggested that they would also occasionally appear on the Birmingham Snow Hill lines, but this has been removed from the current version, so presumably these plans have been shelved.

That archived page also indicates that WMR were hoping for a 2021 introduction for these units. In reality, the first 196s didn’t appear in passenger service until April 2023 - but the rollout appears to have progressed at a decent rate, and they are now quite a common sight. My first journey on one was between Worcester and Birmingham on Tuesday 25th July 2023.

The 196s, being from the CAF Civity family, are similar in various ways to the slightly older Civity units, the class 195 operated by Northern. I happen to quite like the 195s, so this page will contain frequent comparisons between 195s and 196s.

Impressions from the platform

West Midlands Railway uses a striking orange and purple livery unlike anything else on the network. This, combined with an angular, almost angry-looking front end with a cab end gangway door, gives the 196s quite an imposing presence at a station platform. The paintwork also looks extremely clean and shiny, though only time will tell whether this lasts or not. Somehow the 196 seems to draw attention to itself, though that may just be because it’s new.

The 195s seem to me to have a rather different aesthetic. They carry Northern’s plain-looking white livery with blue doors - which, while perfectly pleasant, doesn’t seem to grab attention in the same way as the orange. They also have a different front-end design, because they do not incorporate cab end gangways. Overall they seem sleeker and more understated.

The 196s share a slight annoyance with most other end-gangwayed stock - the front destination display is only provided in the cab window on the left-hand side, and it’s difficult to see from a platform on the other because the gangway obstructs the view. It’s a very minor issue, but it seems that it would be easy to address by simply providing a destination display in the right-hand cab window as well. Whether this was considered or not I have no idea, and it’s possible it was rejected for a good reason (such as not being able to fit it in without obstructing the driver’s view).

Also, each carriage only has a body-side destination display on one side. They alternate, so on each side, there is one display for every two carriages, which I believe is the minimum required by accessibility regulations. Sensibly, the driving cars do have their display on the side from which the gangway stops you seeing the front display, but I can’t help but think it would be even more sensible for all carriages to just have displays on both sides (which, for the record, the 195s do). In the context of a new train, it can’t be that much more expensive, surely.

I do think it’s a shame that these trains were not specified with low floors and sliding steps for level boarding. This technology has been standard in other countries, such as Germany, for a while now, and is also in use with Greater Anglia and Merseyrail in the UK. It is such a gamechanger, not only for wheelchair users but for any passenger who would have difficulty with the usual gap between train and platform.

Interior ambience

WMR isn’t an operator specialising in long-distance services, but the 196s will still be used for some fairly long journeys - most obviously Hereford to Birmingham, which takes about 90 minutes - so it’s important that the environment on-board is pleasant for a journey of this length. In my opinion, this is where the 196s really excel.

The windows are slightly smaller than their Northern counterparts, but there is a good reason for this: WMR have specified a different window layout which allows the seats to be better aligned with the windows. Interior lighting takes the form of cool white LEDs; there are spotlights above the aisle, but most of the light seems to eminate sideways onto the ceiling panels, which provides a nice diffusion effect and stops the illumination being too harsh. As with all modern trains, this is supplemented with additional lighting in the doorways to aid boarding and alighting.

The colours and materials used in the interior design look classy and do give an immediate impression of quality. They’ve gone for a two-tone effect on the carriage side walls, a light grey colour on the end walls and the door surrounds, and a seat fabric which nicely incorporates the hexagon motif seen across West Midlands transport services. The panel with the passenger door control buttons has a pleasing metal finish, and is set at an angle to the doors, rather than being parallel to them like on the 195, which makes the buttons a bit easier to see.

I do think they’ve missed an opportunity by not using the WMR orange colour for the grab handles on seats and the handrails near the doors. This would not only improve their contrast with the rest of the train, but also add a bit of visual interest to counteract the slight “boring office” vibe caused by the prevelance of plain grey and white surfaces. (This is exacerbated at Birmingham New Street station, which is notorious for its lack of natural light at platform level, meaning the only source of light in the train is the cool white LEDs.) Overall, though, it’s an attractive environment that I would be more than happy to spend a few hours in.

In noise terms, they unsurprisingly sound identical to 195s. This means that there is noise from the engine at a noticeable (as with any DMU) but perfectly acceptable level. Unfortunately, another thing they have in common with 195s is equipment which periodically cuts in and makes a loud noise reminiscent of some sort of pump starting up. It seems to happen regardless of whether or not the train is moving, and it does sound like it could be a compressor, so my best guess is that it’s something HVAC-related. Whatever it is, I actually find it considerably more intrusive than the engine noise, though still perfectly acceptable overall. I didn’t find the noise levels uncomfortable or overbearing at any point.

The ride quality is perhaps a little rougher than ideal, seemingly transmitting more bumps from the track than a Turbostar would, but I didn’t find this a major issue.

Passenger facilities

Each unit is formed of either two or four coaches. The two-coach units have 141 seats, consisting of:

• 134 seats in an airline-style configuration
• Ten table bays (each comprising four seats around a table) for a total of 40 table seats
• Seven tip-up seats

The four-coach units have 311 seats, consisting of:

• 216 seats in an airline-style configuration
• 22 table bays for a total of 88 table seats
• Seven tip-up seats

(These figures are calculated using WMR’s seating plan and data sheet; I didn’t walk through the train counting!)

Each unit also has two wheelchair spaces, three bicycle spaces and a large accessible toilet. The four-car units have an additional smaller toilet which is not wheelchair accessible. In each carriage there are six passenger information screens, and they are positioned so that you should be able to see at least one clearly from anywhere in the passenger saloon, though I can’t comment on the content of them as they weren’t working on my journey.

Seats are not numbered and there is no provision at all for displaying seat reservations - not even slots in the headrests for a paper reservation ticket - though this isn’t really a problem, as WMR doesn’t offer seat reservations on any services, and if they were to start offering so in the future, electronic seat reservation signs are I believe available for retro-fitment.

There is nothing revolutionary about the passenger amenities on these these trains, but thought has been given to lots of minor things, which do add up and give an impression of real attention to detail. (This is the angle WMR seem to be going for too, with their “it’s the little things” advertising campaign online and at stations). Small annoyances have been eliminated through measures such as

• the aforementioned layout with no seats which are misaligned with the windows;
• providing coat hooks, and positioning them so that a hanging coat won’t block the window;
• positioning the power sockets for charging devices on a little divider between the seats in front, where they can clearly be seen, rather than below the seat, where it’s necessary to reach around for them;
• glass luggage racks, meaning you can see through them from below, which WMR claims will make it less likely that you put a bag up there and forget to take it with you at the end of your journey;
• seats which are cantilevered from the walls, to allow large bags to fit under the seats (hopefully this will discourage people from taking up space by placing them on the seats) and to make it easier to clean the floor effectively.

Unfortunately, they’ve also introduced a couple of annoyances of their own, largely consisting of two particular faux pas. The first is making it near-impossible to find a litter bin. Even for passengers who habitually take their litter with them, this is annoying, because it will undoubtedly result in other passengers leaving theirs lying around because they can’t find anywhere to put it.

The second has to do with the seat-back tray tables, and it’s quite simple: they’re just far too small. They open and close in a firm, satisfying way; they feel extremely solid; they even have little indentations so you can put a cup down or stand up a mobile phone and it won’t move around - and if that’s all you’re doing, they’re fine. But there is no way you’ll be working from a laptop (despite the “little things” ad promising “seat-back tables so you can browse on the move” along with a picture of a laptop). In fact, I think you’d have difficulty eating a Tesco Meal Deal from one without knocking things off the edge.

It’s also disappointing to see that the wheelchair spaces aren’t provided with any form of table.

An orientational curiosity

The toilet on the 196 was fairly unremarkable, but that’s probably a good thing. It was clean, modern and had all the facilities you would expect. Its positioning within the train, however, did give rise to a question.

If you board the wheelchair-accessible carriage on a class 195 unit and look towards the wheelchair area, you’ll see that the toilet module is attached to the left-hand wall, with the gangway going round to the right of it. This, it appears, is a pretty standard way of laying it out - in fact, among multiple units in the UK with the same basic layout (two doors per side of each carriage, roughly evenly spaced along the carriage rather than at the ends), of all ages, from all manufacturers, the single exception I could find was the 196, which has the accessible toilet module attached to the right-hand side, with the gangway to the left.

So the wheelchair accessible area on 196s is oriented in the “opposite” way to on other trains, including other trains built as part of the same product line by the same manufacturer. I imagine there is a reason for this, but I have no idea what it is. It’s moderately noteworthy nonetheless.

Trying to be too clever?

Despite discussing various aspects of the interior fit-out, I’ve so far left out perhaps the most important one - other than ridiculing the uselessly-small tables on the back, I’ve not really the discussed the seats themselves. This is because I feel they deserve their own section, and you may be able to tell from the title of this section that I’m not really a fan.

The 196s are fitted with a customised seat design developed by FISA, a seating manufacturer, and Schoenemann, a design consultancy. The seats do look nice and they feel really solidly put together, but I just can’t get comfortable in them.

There is an unusual curved shape to the seat back, and the padding in the seat is quite firm. I usually don’t mind firm seats that much, but in this case it means that if I don’t sit bolt upright, that curve digs uncomfortably into my back. I can’t comfortably sit bolt upright either, because there is a large winged headrest which is too low down and digs into my shoulders instead.

Of course, seating comfort will always vary from person to person. It’s entirely possible, for example, that to someone of average height (I am taller than average), the seat would be extremely comfortable. However, on public transport, it seems to me that we should be aiming for a reasonable degree of comfort for as many people as possible - not the best possible standard of comfort for an exactly average person. The best way to do that is to keep it simple - large headrests that protrude significantly from the seat, for example, will make it more comfortable to someone of exactly the right height to use them, and much less comfortable to everyone else.

A slightly less subjective issue is that the seats backs are very thick, in contrast to the rather thin Fainsa ones found in the 195s, which eats into the available legroom - not great if you have long legs.

I actually find those Fainsa seats which Northern have gone for, sometimes nicknamed “ironing boards”, considerably more pleasant to sit in than the FISA ones on the 196s, despite the fact they look much flimsier and less substantial - and they also have decent-sized tables!

In summary

I was by and large really impressed by the 196s. From the moment you board, they feel like a quality product. They are quick, quiet, stylish and show a lot of attention to detail.

The real let-down, of course, is the seating. Despite almost every other aspect of the 196 being an improvement over the 195, if I had a journey of a few hours, I think I’d still rather sit on a 195, for this sole reason. Perhaps the seat-back tables could easily be replaced with larger ones, but short of replacing the whole seat, there’s no fixing the awkward shape. Hopefully the seats will become a little softer as they wear in, which should make the problem a bit less severe.

Other than that, just fix the broken passenger information system, and install some more prominent litter bins and they’d be pretty much perfect.