parliamentary train

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English

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English Wikipedia has an article on:
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Noun

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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.

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