HC Deb 04 March 1892 vol 2 cc41-2
MR. WEBB

I beg to ask the President of the Board of Trade whether he is aware that it is not always possible for women travelling alone to find, especially at crowded railway stations, room in compartments reserved for women only, and that aggravated assaults upon women in railway compartments occur from time to time; and whether the Board of Trade would urge upon Railway Companies the desirability, as carriages come under repair, and as new ones are constructed, of arranging that a portion of the partition dividing compartments one from the other should be constructed of glass?

THE PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD OF TRADE (Sir MICHAEL HICKS BEACH,) Bristol, W.

I am not aware that there is any general deficiency in the accommodation for women travelling alone; none such appears to me disclosed in the Correspondence on the subject presented to Parliament in 1888; nor am I of opinion that the expedient suggested by the hon. Member would have such support from the travelling public as to justify me in pressing it on the notice of the Railway Companies.