(rail, UK, mainly, 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.
1885, W. S. Gilbert, The Mikado, Act II, in The Mikado, and Other Plays, New York: Modern Library, 1917, p. 42, [https://archive.org/details/mikadootherplays00gilb]
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