The conveyance of passengers at cheap fares was from the commencement of
railways a great public concern, and it was soon found necessary that the
legislature should take action in the matter. Accordingly, by the
Regulation of Railways Act, 1844, all passenger railways were required to
run one train every day from end to end of their line, carrying
third-class passengers at a rate not exceeding one penny a mile, stopping
at all stations, starting at hours approved by the Board of Trade,
travelling at least twelve miles an hour, and with carriages protected
from weather. This enactment greatly encouraged the poorer classes in
railway travelling; but the companies were slow to carry out the new
regulations cheerfully. The trains were timed at most inconvenient
hours; to undertake a journey of any considerable length in one day at
third-class fare was almost out of the question. In fact, a
short-sighted policy of doing almost everything to discourage third-class
travelling was adopted by the Companies.
A traveller having started on a long journey, thinking to be able to
travel all the way third-class, would find at some stage of the route
that he had arrived, only a few minutes perhaps, after the departure of
the cheap train to his destination, with no alternative but to wait for
hours or proceed by the express and pay accordingly. Moreover, the
third-class carriages were provided with the very minimum of comfort. It
was not seen by the railway executive of that time that the policy
adopted was actually prejudicial to their own interests.
_Our Railways_, by Joseph Parsloe.