Rolling stock › In serviceData updated 7 October 2026

Class 172 Turbostar unverified

The last of Bombardier's Turbostar diesels, built at Derby in 2010–11 for London Overground, Chiltern and London Midland. All 39 now run for West Midlands Railway on the Snow Hill lines; London Midland's 27 have a gangway in the cab front, and the 12 that came from London Overground and Chiltern don't.

Drawing to come

Type

Diesel multiple unit

Builder

Bombardier Transportation (now Alstom), Derby Litchurch Lane

Built

2010–2011

In service

since 2010

Operators

WMR

Formation

2 or 3 cars: two-car 172/0, 172/1 and 172/2 (DMOS-DMOSL(W)); three-car 172/3 (DMOS-MOS-DMOSL(W))

Trains in fleet

39

Fleets

West Midlands Railway: 39

Top speed

100 mph

Power

Diesel: an MTU 6H1800R83 engine of 360 kW under each car, with a ZF mechanical gearbox

Car height

3.77 m

Car width

2.69 m

Profile

main-line

Air-conditioned

Yes

Seats per train

219

Standing (5 per m²)

306

Total capacity

Three-car 172/3: 219 seats, 16 of them tip-up (68 + 8, 72 + 8 and 63 per car, Porterbrook), + 306 standing at 5 per m², calculated from Porterbrook's floor areas (61.21 m²). Two-car 172/2: 139 seats, 8 of them tip-up. Platform 5 (via Wikipedia) gives the same totals split as 192 + 27 and 120 + 19 tip-up

Status

In service: 39 units (24 two-car and 15 three-car) with West Midlands Railway, maintained at Tyseley. After a shortage of parts cut the Snow Hill lines' timetable in spring 2025, the whole fleet is being overhauled with new wheelsets, final drives and brake discs.

This page is marked unverified: its figures haven’t yet been confirmed by an official source or a published history. The foot of the page says what’s in doubt.

Car types

Sources

How we source figures →

• Class 172 Diesel Multiple Unit (brochure, issue 01 revision A, archived), Porterbrook, January 2014, pp. PDF pp. 5, 9-15 (172/2 and 172/3: 23 m cars with bi-parting swing-plug doors at 1/3 and 2/3; car lengths 23.62 m and 23.0 m, width 2.69 m, height 3.77 m; MTU 6H1800R83 360 kW per car, ZF gearbox; 100 mph; seats and floor areas per car; air conditioning; unit list 172211-222 and 172331-345 built 2011)
• Class 172, Angel Trains (eight 172/0 and four 172/1 two-car units, 100 mph, 23 m cars, operators Chiltern and West Midlands Railway)
• Snow Hill & Hereford Routes: amended timetable, spring 2025 (archived), West Midlands Railway, March 2025 (39 Class 172s, 24 two-car and 15 three-car; all Snow Hill lines services; overhaul with new wheelsets, final drives and brake discs)
• Successful test run of the first Class 172/0 via Kenilworth (archived), West Midlands Railway, 1 May 2019 (eight refurbished 172/0s from London Overground in May 2019; 27 existing Class 172s)
• Modified electric trains to be used temporarily on London Overground's Gospel Oak to Barking line, Transport for London (press release), 25 January 2019 (London Overground's 172s leaving the Gospel Oak to Barking line)
• Huge depot redevelopment completed by West Midlands Railway, RAIL (Rich Wilcock), 27 October 2025 (Tyseley depot, home of the Class 172s)
• British Rail Class 172, Wikipedia (sub-classes, the 172/1s' move from Chiltern in 2021, first service July 2010 (cross-check only))

unverified the sub-classes of the 24 two-car units: eight 172/0s (172001-008, from London Overground in 2019, confirmed by West Midlands Railway), and four 172/1s (172101-104, from Chiltern in 2021) and twelve 172/2s (172211-222) as Wikipedia gives them; West Midlands Railway gives only the total, car lengths, height and width are Porterbrook's for its 172/2s and 172/3s; Angel Trains gives 23 m and 2.8 m for the 172/0s and 172/1s, the 172/0s' top speed: 100 mph (Angel Trains today), 75 mph in Angel's older data (Wikipedia), car lengths are probably over couplers, as for Porterbrook's other Turbostar figures (the Class 170's 23.62 m is 23.56 m over the body), ORR's March 2025 count of West Midlands Trains' diesel vehicles (169) is lower than its fleets add up to, so some 172s may have been out of use