Workemens tickets originated, as far as I know, when Liverpool St
station was built in London (about 1870?)

The station required demolition of a huge amount of cheap slum
housing, causing a public outcry, and a demand that the railway be
forced to do something in compensation for displacing all those low
income people. The result was cheap commuting tickets from new cheap
housing built up the line. The previous train users didn't really
welcome all those unwashed people on their trains, so the tickets
were timed so that the new users would have to travel at a different
time from the middle classes.

Jeremy Parker