The important question is, did it make it to St Pancras without catching fire, breaking down or the doors getting stuck?!
Jokes aside, I'm glad to here that it was clean inside and your partner felt comfortable on an EMR service at the moment. I think a lot of work is going into keeping trains as clean as possible currently and is encouraging to hear that people feel that they are clean enough!
If they weren't so unreliable, 180s would be fantastic trains. I always preferred to take the Grand Central services when I was travelling home from uni all those years ago.