My controversial opinion is that in terms of comfort, the EPB has never been bettered for a suburban commuter train.
Also, VEP's could be perfectly pleasant to travel on (if not overcrowded).
I actually only ever travelled on an EPB once - 21/10/83, a substitution on the 1832 Waterloo-Fratton for the usual CIG/VEP combo. Units 5123 and 5124, to be precise (I still remember this!) and I think both were still in BR blue. I saw them much more often than I used them. Enjoyable to observe, though.
Agree about VEPs, I never had a problem with them (and I used them a lot between 1982 and 2004) and I always used to like the variety that having a mix of CIGs and VEPs on a given route produced - the Portsmouth Direct '82's being perhaps the classic example.
My dad however hated them; they were seemingly third only to Neil Kinnock and 80s pop stars (Madonna, George Michael, FGTH to name a few) in his list of pet hates of the 80s.
Open Access operations should be banned. They use up track capacity with short units, are primarily abstractive regardless of what they claim, and invariably offer poor service due to the need to cut costs to be viable. The competitor is the car.
Tendering invariably leads to a poor quality product because typically tenders aren't well enough written to avoid suppliers producing cheap junk.
I am somewhat sympathetic to this in the sense that they consume paths which could be better used by services for which there is a greater need. I also tend to think that a more integrated service can be produced if you reduce the number of operators.
On that subject, I'll venture another. If privatisation had to be done, it would have been far better done as a single "BR plc", no Railtrack, and certainly no leasing companies.
377s are one of the nicest regional commuter trains you can take.
I do agree with this, I'd rate 377s and 444s highly on the current railway. The latter I suspect is non-controversial, AFAIK 444s are one of the most popular units about today.
Better than most of the Southern electric stock people get nostalgic about, even if they look a bit boring on the outside
On the other hand I used to enjoy the CIGs and VEPs of my youth (see above...)