railway time

English

Noun

railway time (uncountable)

1. (historical) A standardized time arrangement formerly used by railways to overcome the confusion caused by varying local times at different stations.
   • 2012, Andrew Martin, Underground Overground: A passenger's history of the Tube, Profile Books, →ISBN, page 15:

     The disparate time zones of Britain were unified under 'railway time' - as Dickens famously observed in Dombey: 'It was if the sun itself had given in.'