Nineteenth Century Usage
In the earliest days of passenger railways in the United Kingdom, travel by the poor was encouraged to find employment in the growing industrial centres, but generally unaffordable except in the most basic of open wagons, in many cases attached to goods trains.
Political pressure caused the Board of Trade to investigate, and Sir Robert Peel's Conservative government enacted the Railway Regulation Act, which took effect on 1 November 1844. It compelled "the provision of at least one train a day each way at a speed of not less than 12 miles an hour including stops, which were to be made at all stations, and of carriages protected from the weather and provided with seats; for all which luxuries not more than a penny a mile might be charged".
Read more about this topic: Parliamentary Train
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