I have been out a few times over the last fortnight looking at and indeed travelling on some of the 331's recently introduced. My first observations are very impressive acceleration, although with all the other CAF stock I have been on, the ride over the coach ends is not quite to my liking.
What struck me though was the overcrowding already - full all seats taken leaving Liverpool, and full and standing leaving Preston. Never witnessed this on a 319, although did on a 156 on several occasions.
I think there has been significant long term growth on this route over the last 30 years. I recall travelling on the Wigan stoppers years ago and there were maybe a few dozen on board, certainly not enough to overcrowd a pacer unless at peak time. Now some of these same services using 319s are full to bursting, on a Saturday especially, so much so that they have had to open all the ticket gates at Lime St to let everyone out quickly.
I think our new 2 and 3 car units are already showing symptoms of Voyager disease. A similar thing is happening on the CLC with the 195s replacing double 156s.