Act of Parliament | |
Long title | An Act to attach certain Conditions to the construction of future Railways authorised by any Act of the present or succeeding sessions of Parliament; and for other Purposes in relation to Railways. |
---|---|
Citation | 7 & 8 Vict. c. 85 |
Introduced by | William Ewart Gladstone |
Dates | |
Royal assent | 9 August 1844 |
Other legislation | |
Amended by | Statute Law Revision Act 1874 (No. 2) |
Repealed by | Transport Act 1962 |
Status: Repealed |
The Railway Regulation Act 1844 [1] (7 & 8 Vict. c. 85) was an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom providing a minimum standard for rail passenger travel. It provided compulsory services at a price affordable to poorer people to enable them to travel to find work. It is one of the Railway Regulation Acts 1840 to 1893. [2]
Until that time there were three or more classes of carriage, third class usually an open goods wagon, often without seats, sometimes referred to sarcastically as "Stanhopes", a corruption of "Stand-ups". During that year, a select committee had produced six reports on the railways, at the behest of the Board of Trade under its president, W. E. Gladstone. These led to An Act to attach certain Conditions to the construction of future Railways authorised by any Act of the present or succeeding sessions of Parliament; and for other Purposes in relation to Railways, referred to as "Gladstone's Act".
The original bill introduced into Parliament by W. E. Gladstone had been far-reaching for its time - even proposing state ownership of the railways and telegraph.
The Act stated:
In return the railway operator was exempted from duty on third class passengers. The price was not cheap for working people. An additional requirement was that they should be allowed to carry 56 lb (25 kg) of luggage free. It helped those in search of work thus, as Smith [3] points out, its benefit was to improve labour supply.
The reaction of many railway companies was grudging acceptance of the letter, if not the spirit of the legislation, and they provided the minimum one train per day with facilities for third class passengers at an unpopular time such as early morning or late at night. These were the original parliamentary trains. The reason for the reluctance was to avoid losing revenue if passengers who could afford to travel second class switched to third if facilities there became bearable. [4] Some companies continued to run inferior third or fourth class trains in addition to the minimum standard parliamentary train.
The Midland Railway broke ranks by providing three compartments, with glazed windows and an oil lamp in the roof, causing resentment among competitors. Finally in 1875 the standard of third class was upgraded and second class was abolished – by relabelling the coaches. It caused scandal now difficult to imagine. In the 1800s there was rigid distinction between social classes and the belief was that the railway would bring "the 'lower orders' nearer to equality with their 'betters' " [5] Sir James Allport, general manager of the Midland Railway, in a speech said:
"If there is one part of my public life on which I look back with more satisfaction, it is with reference to the boon we conferred on third-class travellers..." [4]
Other railways followed, and because they were obliged to provide third class, the oddity of first and third, but no second – except on boat trains – persisted into the 20th century, when third class was rebranded to second class in 1956, and then further rebranded as 'standard' to remove negative associations.
The London and Birmingham Railway (L&BR) was a railway company in the United Kingdom, in operation from 1833 to 1846, when it became part of the London and North Western Railway (L&NWR).
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A parliamentary train was a passenger service operated in the United Kingdom to comply with the Railway Regulation Act 1844 that required train companies to provide inexpensive and basic rail transport for less affluent passengers. The act required that at least one such service per day be run on every railway route in the UK.
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The Manchester and Bolton Railway was a railway in the historic county of Lancashire, England, connecting Salford to Bolton. It was built by the proprietors of the Manchester, Bolton and Bury Canal Navigation and Railway Company who had in 1831 converted from a canal company. The 10-mile (16 km) long railway was originally to have been built upon most of the line of the canal, but it was eventually built alongside the Salford and Bolton arms of the canal. The act of Parliament, the Manchester, Bolton and Bury Canal and Railway Act 1831, also allowed the construction of a connection to Bury, but technical constraints meant that it was never built.
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