What is "parliamentary train"

Parliamentary \Par`lia*men"ta*ry\, a. [Cf. F. parlementaire.]

1. Of or pertaining to Parliament; as, parliamentary authority.
   --Bacon.

2. Enacted or done by Parliament; as, a parliamentary act.
   --Sir M. Hale.

3. According to the rules and usages of Parliament or of deliberative bodies; as, a parliamentary motion; parliamentary order; parliamentary procedure.

   Parliamentary agent, a person, usually a solicitor, professionally employed by private parties to explain and recommend claims, bills, etc., under consideration of Parliament. [Eng.]

   Parliamentary train, one of the trains which, by act of Parliament, railway companies are required to run for the conveyance of third-class passengers at a reduced rate.

Parliamentary trains in the UK were passenger services required by an Act of Parliament passed in 1844 to allow inexpensive and basic railway travel for less affluent passengers. The legislation required that at least one such service per day be run on every railway route in the United Kingdom.

Such services are no longer a legal requirement, and the term has come to be used instead to describe train services that continue to be run to avoid the cost of formal closure of a route or station, but with services reduced sometimes to one train per week, and without specially low prices. Such services are also often called "ghost trains".