Williams, in his book _The Midland Railway_, wrote, "On the last day of
March, 1872, we remarked to a friend: 'To-morrow morning the Midland will
be the most popular railway in England.' Nor did we incur much risk by
our prediction. For on that day the Board had decided that on and after
the first of April, they would run third-class carriages by all trains;
the wires had flashed the tidings to the newspapers, the bills were in
the hands of the printers, and on the following morning the Directors
woke to find themselves famous." At a later period, Mr. Allport said, if
there was one part of his public life on which he looked back with more
satisfaction than another it was the time when this boon was conferred on
third-class passengers.
When we contemplate present conditions of third-class travel it is hard
to realise what they were before this change took place; slow speed,
delays and discomfort; bare boards; hard seats; shunting of third-class
trains into sidings and waiting there for other trains, sometimes even
goods trains, to pass. Mr. Allport might well be proud of the part he
played.
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