Rolling stock › In serviceData updated
Class 196 Civity unverified
CAF's Civity diesel for West Midlands Railway, mostly assembled at Newport in South Wales, with gangways in the cab ends so that units can be walked through. It replaced the Class 170s on the Shrewsbury and Hereford lines from 2022 and runs the reopened Camp Hill line.
Drawing to come
- Type
- Diesel multiple unit
- Builder
- CAF (Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles); most assembled at Newport, South Wales
- Built
- 2019–2022
- In service
- since 2022
- Operators
- WMR
- Formation
- 2 or 4 cars: two-car 196/0 (DMSL-DMS) and four-car 196/1 (DMSL-MS-MSL-DMS)
- Trains in fleet
- 26
- Fleets
- West Midlands Railway: 26
- Top speed
- 100 mph
- Power
- Diesel: an MTU engine of 390 kW (13 litres, six cylinders) under each car
- Profile
- main-line
- Air-conditioned
- Yes
- Seats per train
- 311
- Total capacity
- Four-car 196/1: 311 seats; two-car 196/0: 141 (West Midlands Railway), all standard class, 2+2
- Status
- In service: 26 units (12 two-car and 14 four-car) on Birmingham to Shrewsbury, Birmingham to Hereford, Leamington Spa to Nuneaton and the Camp Hill line, maintained at Tyseley. Owned by Porterbrook since January 2026, when it bought them from Corelink.
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
| Code | Car | Length | Doors per side |
|---|---|---|---|
| DMSL | Driving motor standard with lavatory (DMSL) | 24.00 m | 2 double |
| MS | Motor standard (MS), in four-car 196/1s | 24.00 m | 2 double |
| MSL | Motor standard with lavatory (MSL), in four-car 196/1s | 24.00 m | 2 double |
| DMS | Driving motor standard (DMS) | 24.00 m | 2 double |
Sources
- Class 196 fact sheet (archived), West Midlands Railway, October 2022 (CAF; 26 trains (14 four-car, 12 two-car), 80 carriages; 100 mph; 311 and 141 seats, 2+2; air conditioning; most built at CAF's factory in South Wales; replacing the Class 170s)
- CAF WMT Class 196 Diesel Multiple Unit: authorisation under the Railways (Interoperability) Regulations 2011 (EIN UK/51/2020/0049), Office of Rail and Road, 26 August 2020 (unit and vehicle numbers 196001-012 (DMSL-DMS) and 196101-114 (DMSL-MS-MSL-DMS); 160 km/h (100 mph); up to eight cars in service)
- CAF Class 196 enters service with West Midlands Trains (archived), Railway Gazette International, October 2022 (first passenger working 17 October 2022 (196101); 24 m cars, a 390 kW 13-litre six-cylinder MTU engine each; 160 km/h; end gangways; assembly at Newport)
- New West Midlands Railway fleet enters passenger service (archived), West Midlands Railway, 17 October 2022 (first passengers 17 October 2022, Shrewsbury to Birmingham New Street; Hereford line next)
- Historic Camp Hill railway line reopens for first time in eighty years, West Midlands Railway, 7 April 2026 (Class 196s on the Camp Hill line from 7 April 2026)
- Two brand-new West Midlands Railway stations welcome first passengers, West Midlands Railway, 19 March 2026 (Class 196s on the Shrewsbury line via Darlaston and Willenhall)
- Huge depot redevelopment completed by West Midlands Railway, RAIL (Rich Wilcock), 27 October 2025 (Tyseley depot, home of the Class 196s; the 96-metre four-car units)
- West Midlands Trains' new rolling stock and depots, Rail Engineer, 19 August 2024 (80 vehicles in 14 four-car and 12 two-car units; launched October 2022; 311 and 141 seats)
- Porterbrook acquires Corelink fleets, Porterbrook, 8 January 2026 (Porterbrook buys Corelink's 80 Class 196 vehicles, January 2026)
- West Midlands Trains finalises £680m deal for new trains with Bombardier and CAF, West Midlands Trains, 12 December 2017 (order from CAF, December 2017)
- British Rail Class 196, Wikipedia (doors; East West Rail (cross-check only))
unverified car lengths: Railway Gazette says the cars are 24 m long and RAIL calls the four-car units 96 m long; Wikipedia gives its sister Classes 195 and 197 as 24.03 m (driving cars) and 23.35 m (intermediate cars), so the 196's intermediate cars may be shorter than shown, car height and width: no source found, doors: two pairs of sliding plug doors on each side of each car (Wikipedia); not checked against a drawing, routes: Leamington Spa to Nuneaton is from Railway Gazette's 2022 plan and Wikipedia; the Shrewsbury, Hereford and Camp Hill lines are confirmed by West Midlands Railway, Chiltern's December 2025 cleaning tender lists Class 196s for East West Rail; whether any of West Midlands Railway's 26 will go there isn't known