Originally Posted by
LHR/MEL/Europe FF
This is in fact the correct story of how standard class came to British Railways. 'Standard' class is the old third class, second was withdrawn.
I thought that when I was a child in the 1970s, trains had explicit first and second classes. I thought standard class came along later as a rebranding (when passengers became customers; guards became ticket inspectors; sandwiches became edible; stations became station stops...)