So these look like less seating capacity (about 20% down from a 2x455+456). Yes, you will get toilets, AC that may or may not work, you’ll get WiFi but that is not a problem even now as the commuters who load them up all seem to do perfectly fine.
Who is going to tell the people at say Cobham that they are standing all the way in to Waterloo when these come in? That’ll be yet more people disillusioned with the railways. Even more so (on that route) if they build Burpham station with all the new housing going up. Or is that the gamble, people will just have to use the trains. So they will stand anyway.
These look like a straight swap to suit the franchise and some headline numbers about passenger volumes, not the passengers.
What we really want is capacity, which doesn’t seem possible to get from longer trains or more seats, so has to come from increased intensity of services. Oh, and trains that actually run on time at modern speeds. Over to you, NR.... ah, not great so far....