Parliamentary Train in London, 1859

With the Railway Regulation Act of 1844, the British government required railroad companies to introduce affordable train services that could be used by lower-income sections of society to commute to work. These so-called "parliamentary trains" ran at least once a day on each route. As railroad companies were reluctant to comply with the act, the parliamentary trains offered passengers very little comfort. The woodcut by William M'Connell shows the interior of a third-class compartment, where passengers are tightly packed on wooden benches.

Parliamentary Train: Interior of a Third Class Carriage, woodcut, 1859, artist: William M'Connell; source: Sala, George Augustus: Twice round the clock; or, The hours of the day and night in London, London [1859], p. 64; digital copy: Library of Congress, https://lccn.loc.gov/28015943, public domain.