What is the point of 1st and 2nd class in the train and why has this class system not been introduced in buses or trams?

Answer

Certainly, a train without 1st class is a possibility. It seems to solve the problem you are posing. But the argument you put forward for that abolition is not conclusive. If second-class carriages of a certain train are regularly full – which is all too often the case – a service-providing and customer-friendly NMBS could or should add one or more second-class carriages to that train. However, the problem is that the NMBS does not seem to have enough rolling stock at the moment. But the responsibility for the shortage of seats in a certain class lies with the NMBS, not with the users (of that class).

It is of course eye-catching when you notice in an overcrowded second class carriage that there are still a few or possibly many seats available in first class. However, every traveler is free to take a seat in first class and to pay the surcharge (half of the 2nd class ticket) for this (if the train guard comes around at all). That’s allowed. Whether that imposition is ‘democratic’ or not, whether it is justified that some people can or want to spend more money for a certain convenience (more on that in a moment), depends on the observer. By extension you can of course think of the same, uniform and affordable car, television set, house and so on for everyone.

Some train passengers are willing to pay 50% more because they want to sit quietly, read or work undisturbed. That is why, for example, while I am not wealthy at all, I occasionally, on my way to a lecture or a lesson, also use first class. From this point of view, you can argue that if 2nd class carriages are overcrowded (problem: who will determine that? who will check that? when is something overcrowded?) and second class passengers take their seats in first class, this would not be fair compared to people who have paid 50% more for the sake of peace (of which they may now be robbed). Just cancel it then? could be, but then you actually have to take a hard look at the entire capitalist ‘system’ and our consumer society and change it. While the communist and anarchist alternatives we have known so far were unfortunately not really people-friendly. I can’t get out of this either. But it is a bit more complex than it seems at first sight.

Finally something about the past of (the Belgian) train and tram. In the early fifties (I don’t remember exactly) the Belgian Railways still had 1st, 2nd and 3rd class; I’ve been through that for a while. And also on the tram (in Ghent) you had a small 1st class compartment. The latter was, given the fact that the tram only consisted of one relatively short carriage (and could exist) and was always full at peak hours, completely insane. I have not studied the history of the Railway, but I strongly believe that in its early days the train was quite unaffordable for the ‘ordinary’ people, for the lower income classes and was therefore probably reserved for wealthier people. And when other ‘people’ joined them, those wealthy had to and could distance themselves from that ‘rabble’. Yes.