I can't be the only one to be very disappointed with the CAF class 195s.
I made a journey from Chester to Leeds yesterday, to visit the Christmas Market (not my choice) using the £10 newspaper offer.
The Chester - Leeds service is a great service in theory, but suffers from appalling timekeeping no doubt due to pathing problems on route starting with east of Chester. Choosing table seats next to the cab as these are the only ones where the tables line up with the windows, however we were forced to move after a few miles as the restless riding and hunting from the bogies was intolerable. The information screens and auto announcements were not working, with only spasmodic manual announcements; surely contravenes PRM regulations. A visit to the toilet showed that the toilet seat about to fall off and the changing table had fallen off and was missing. The toilet bowl was well stained and the saloon carpet had not been vacuumed since new - granted these faults are with Northern not CAF.
I smiled when I heard someone commenting that CAF stood for "cheap as ****". Interesting, especially as the CAF bodied trains on Leeds North West electrics are still one of the best trains on the network all those years later.
On the return journey we missed our Chester train owing to rail conditions on the Harrogate loop. Caught the next Calder Valley service, also a 195. This was delayed awaiting "fitters attention", in practice two blokes in orange gear with a hammer, spanner and a torch (literally). Crawled to Bradford where it was cancelled, not the most passenger friendly station; thankfully the Greggs in the bus part was open. A 'dead' 195 was in platform 4, presumably an earlier failure. The following Leeds - Chester service was over half an hour late for some reason, another 195. The third unit example with no announcements or information screens. Much worse absolutely no manual announcements; goodness knows how passengers for the dimly lit Pennine stations knew where to get off.
Not a great day for Northern, initial impressions are that the 195s are terrible, but they don't help themselves as well.
In my opinion the 195s are a step back from the 158s or 170s. Give me a 158 on the Chester - Leeds any day, or even better one of the 170s used on the Harrogate services.