parliamentary train

English

Noun

parliamentary train (plural parliamentary trains)

1. (rail transport, UK, chiefly historical) Originally a requirement in the Railway Regulation Act 1844 for railways to run at least one train a day each way, at a cost to passengers of no more than one penny a mile, on every railway line in the country. Presently the term is used for passenger trains that serve a line or station only once a day or week to avoid the cost of applying for closure.
   • 2012, Andrew Martin, Underground Overground: A passenger's history of the Tube, Profile Books, →ISBN, page 34:

     He [Gladstone] also required the operators to run 'Parliamentary Trains' - one each day calling at every station at a fare of not more than a penny per mile for Third Class.

   • 1885, W. S. Gilbert, The Mikado, Act II, in The Mikado, and Other Plays, New York: Modern Library, 1917, p. 42, [1]

     The idiot who, in railway carriages, / Scribbles on window panes, / We only suffer / To ride on a buffer / In Parliamentary trains.

References

• “parliamentary train”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.