Finally had the opportunity to travel on this today. Sadly not at speed due to a 40mph or so line speed from engineering works (or rather, sitting behind a 315 sharing the fast line).
Overall, I like the finish of the interior. It's already in a pretty unpleasant state from not having been cleaned recently, but that's not exactly any fault of the design. Although the seats (not the colour scheme that the full fleet will see, I'm sure) are a little garish, I like the rest of the interior colour scheme, and the replaced panels do very well to hide the original interior style of the Mk3 EMUs. The only real giveaways are the ashbourne-style seats in 'High density' and the shape of the window apertures themselves.
The ashbourne seats are nothing like as soft as they are on the rest of the fleet, however, and although not as firm as, for example the 377/6 seats, I'd say they compare fairly similarly with Desiro seats. I'm not actually against this, as given how laid back this seat type is, it actually compensates quite well.
That said, I found the highback seats in the low density area far more comfortable, and not because of legroom or extra width.
The ventilation is, at present, totally unacceptable. Heating should not be running on an effectively sealed train when it's 16ºC outside. The ventilation is noticeable in the high density area, it's just that it's hot air (with some occasional cool drafts? Not sure where they were coming from). The noise of the ventilators is very broadband and subdued - far quieter than that on the Desiros and far less tonal than that on the Electrostars.
However, in the low density area, I couldn't see anything. I note the vents used are notched like those on Electrostars, but I couldn't hear any fan noise in that section at all. Anyone know what that's about?
I didn't try the toilets but the pictures from others give me a fair idea about what they'll be like. I sat in the seat in front of the non-disabled toilet for a couple of minutes, and I have to say the rattly noise of the extractor from the toilet behind my head was very annoying. That could do with looking at.
The PIS seems a bit too quiet to me, and only seemed to come from the area around the display itself - if you've got people talking loudly on the train, you won't be able to hear it in certain places. It's much louder on the other 321s. I can only assume this is because with the A/C system in the ceiling there's no room for loudspeakers.
The noise reduction in the cabin as a whole is, while not on a par with a Desiro, very welcome, and greatly improves the experience. Traction motor noise is still far higher than modern stock, but if the re-tractioning goes ahead with the refurbishment, that won't matter anyway. Transformer noise in the power car was excellent, that's been greatly reduced (or perhaps simply the mounts have been replaced after all these yeaers
)
The door sounders are welcome, but a bit cheap-sounding (and why a continuous tone when the doors are released, I thought regulations specified it must be multiple beeps?). I notice a second 'button' with a different symbol on it. Don't know what that's for? It's on the outside as well, so I didn't think it was a door close.
Also, door control buttons on only one side - still? It doesn't seem like that would have been too difficult to change...
I can also confirm the problem with banging doors on Mk 3 EMUs remains unresolved with them - that could really do with sorting, as now the rest of the unit is so quiet, it's even more obvious.
Overall, I quite like the unit itself, but it was impossible to enjoy the experience due to the stifling heat. If they sort that out, it makes for quite an impressive unit to travel on - plus of course the rattling doors.
