It’s time to talk about the Class 196. Ordered in 2017 by British railway operator West Midlands Trains (a consortium of Abellio, JR East, and Mitsui) for their West Midlands Railway operation, they will form a fleet of 26 diesel multiple units (DMU) built by Spanish manufacturer CAF on their Civity UK platform.
We thank Quintus Vosman for his support and pictures.
Sporting a smart orange-based livery designed by Sam Jessup, with a logo designed by McCann, the 196s will run on the Birmingham – Hereford line. The units are based on the Class 195 Civity UK DMUs that are already running in the country for Northern, and differ aesthetically mainly in the design of their head shape: the 195s don’t have a frontal gangway, while the 196s do.
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