"It perhaps becomes obvious too that the women show little interest in the passage of the landscape outside." That much hasn't changed.

One could be flying past the glorious Himalayas and most plane passengers would rather keep watching the Marvel movie on the seat back in front of them.

The standard of dress gives away the allegorical nature of the picture. Trains in those days were filthy and passengers got covered in soot - even in 1st Class. So, upper-class travellers wore "travelling clothes"