Brief History of the Little Belt Railway of Paris Version Relue

Association Sauvegarde Petite Ceinture Association Sauvegarde Petite Ceinture A rail transport in a garden, a network in the city A rail transport in a garden, a network in the city After 1934 : continuation of railway activity Despite the disappearance of the urban passenger service in 1934, the railway history of the Petite Ceinture Brief history of the Petite Ceinture circular railway of Paris continues today. Establishment during the Second French Empire (1852-1869) During the first half of the nineteenth century, • Freight trains the French rail network was built radially The goods service continued to thrive until the around Paris, the political capital of the country, 1970s, before beginning a long decline that ended in order to connect it directly to other big cities. in 1993. It was operated between goods yards of But in 1850, a circular railway line was still the Parisian radial lines (Batignolles, La Chapelle- needed to interconnect all these rays and allow Charbons, La Villette, Bel-Air, Bercy, Ivry and the development of the national transport of Grenelle Marchandises) and local goods yards of goods by rail. At the end of 1851, just a few the Petite Ceinture (Belleville-Villette, Paris- days after the coup d’État that will give birth to Bestiaux, Charonne, Gobelins, La Glacière-Gentilly the Second Empire of Napoleon III, the and Vaugirard). government decided to remedy this by building in the north and east of Paris the Petite A view of a freight train in the Gobelins station, in Ceinture Rive Droite (the section of the Little the 13th borough, in 1985. Belt railway located on the Right Bank of the Seine). This line crossed territories annexed by The maximum speed was 60 km/h. The maximum composition allowed for trains was 40 wagons, which corresponds Paris in 1860 and followed the last fortifications to a weight of 800 tons. In 1948, the freight service of the Petite Ceinture accounted for an average of 105 trains a of the city. day. It was commissioned progressively from 1852 to • Royal trains 1854. Its operation was managed by a From 1900 to the late 1950s, the Avenue of the Bois de Boulogne station (now Avenue Foch) welcomed foreign syndicate, the Company of the Belt Railway of royalty and presidents visiting Paris. One of the most striking of these visits was that of the British royal couple in July Paris, which combines private railway 1938. The station thus earned itself the nickname of "Station of Sovereigns." companies which owned a terminus station in • Junction trains Paris. Quickly local freight stations and industrial branches, such the branch of the Until the late 1980s, the Petite Ceinture was crossed by major European passenger trains between the Nord and slaughterhouses of La Villette, were opened Lyon railway stations. The most prestigious of these trains was the Blue Train (linking Calais to Nice), which inspired along the line in order to improve supplies to Agatha Christie : in the eponym novel, a crime is committed aboard during the route of the Petite Ceinture. Paris. • Adventure trains A freight train crossing the Ménilmontant From 1965 to November 2003, the Petite Ceinture experienced tourist activity on circuits organized by associations station around 1910. wich were partners of the SNCF or RFF. Our Association organized several train trips between 1999 and 2003. 1854-1862 : opening of the urban passenger service • Various other trains Following the decision to build the Petite Ceinture Rive Droite, the project of a beltline, designed to carry goods and In 1996, a section located in the 13th arrondissement, welcomed a train of the future automated line 14 of the located in the west of Paris, was abandoned. Taking advantage of this lack of interest, the Compagnie de l’Ouest (the Metro for automated driving trials. French Western Company) started up in 1854 a dedicated line for carrying passengers between the St. Lazare railway Finally, a train consisting of several passenger cars circulated on the January 18, 2012 in the 15th, 14th and 13th station and the Porte d'Auteuil : the Auteuil line. This line served the Bois de Boulogne and residential areas under boroughs. development. In 1860, the integration the territories it crossed in Paris made its passenger service the first one fully Parisian railway line. On the July 14th, 1862, the French National Day, the Petite Ceinture Rive Droite, where

passenger trains were operated at the request of political authorities, became the second one.

© Association pour la Sauvegarde de la Petite Ceinture de Paris et de son Réseau Ferré, 11 rue Oswaldo Cruz, 75016 Paris. © Association pour la Sauvegarde de la Petite Ceinture de Paris et de son Réseau Ferré, 11 rue Oswaldo Cruz, 75016 Paris. http://www.petiteceinture.org. Text : Bruno Bretelle. http://www.petiteceinture.org. Text : Bruno Bretelle.

- 4 - - 1 - Association Sauvegarde Petite Ceinture Association Sauvegarde Petite Ceinture A rail transport in a garden, a network in the city A rail transport in a garden, a network in the city 1867-1895 : debate on the project of a metropolitan railway 1867-1903 : development of passenger services stimulated by Universal Exhibitions Since the opening in 1867 of the Petite Ceinture From 1867 to 1900, both the passenger services of the Auteuil line and of the Petite Ceinture developed at the pace Rive Gauche and of the first elevated station of the Universal Exhibitions held in Paris every 11 years : in 1867, 1878, 1889 and 1900. For each exhibition, new built on a viaduct in Paris - the Point du Jour stations were created and the number of trains was increased, gradually transforming trains into a really popular station – the circular train service of the Petite form of public transport. Ceinture was considered as the first step to For the Universal Exhibition of 1867, the Petite Ceinture Rive Droite and the Auteuil line were connected by a line building a metropolitan railway network. passing through the southern neighborhoods of Paris : the Petite Ceinture Rive Gauche (the Left Bank Petite Ceinture). The commissioning of the Petite Ceinture Rive Gauche allowed traffic of the first circular trains between The elevated station Point du Jour in the 16th the St. Lazare and Avenue de Clichy stations. These trains ran around Paris via the Auteuil line, the Petite Ceinture borough opened in 1867. Rive Gauche and the Petite Ceinture Rive Droite. On the Auteuil line, they cohabited with the existing passenger trains on this line. A branch, built along the Seine River from the Petite Ceinture Rive Gauche, served the Exhibition organized on the Champs de Mars. In 1869, a few months before the fall of the French Second Empire, a new section opened between the Avenue de Clichy station and the Auteuil line, near the Courcelles-Levallois station, closing the Private railway companies, associated to operate this circular service, continued to develop it, hoping the operation loop and allowing trains to make the full tour of Paris. of the future metropolitan railway would be granted to them. But the City of Paris opposed their plan, because it For the Universal Exposition in 1878, new stations were built, the number of trains increased and the branch serving wanted to develop a purely local railway network, while the Petite Ceinture, with its connections to the radial the Champs de Mars became permanent. suburban railway lines, played a regional role. It also wanted to keep control of the future Metro lines, which was to follow take the route that belonging to the communal area. For the Universal Exhibition of 1889, marked by the inauguration of the Eiffel Tower, the last crossings of the Petite Ceinture Rive Droite were removed while maintaining the traffic. On this occasion, many bridges were constructed, Finally, in 1895, after thirty years of fruitless discussion and with the approaching 1900 Universal Exhibition, the stations re-built and the number of trains was further increased. French government granted the City of Paris the task of building the Metro and to choosing its operating mode. The first Metro line is opened in 1900. From then on, the people of Paris and its suburbs had two metropolitan services : Finally, the Universal Exhibition of 1900 marked the the circular steam trains of the Petite Ceinture and the electric railcars of the Metro. high point of the Petite Ceinture urban passenger service : around 39 million people were 1903-1934 : decline of the circular passenger service transported, an average of over 100,000 per day. In the early twentieth century, the various modes of public transport, operated by separate companies whose tariffs Up to 12 trains per hour in each direction ran were not coordinated, competed strongly. The Petite Ceinture urban passenger service suffered razor-sharp during peak hours, at 5 and 10 minutes intervals. competition from the new Metro and electric tramway lines. Faced with this competition, the circular service was After the Exhibition, up to 8 circular trains ran each reorganized, the tariffs reduced and the commercial speed of trains increased. But these measures did not prevent hour in both directions, to a limit imposed by the sudden drop in passenger figures in just a decade. The Metro’s modernity, where walls of underground stations Auteuil line which owned its own traffic. were covered with white tiles, and whose service was provided by electric railcars, contrasted with the old-fashioned aspect of stations and steam trains of the Petite Ceinture, inherited from the nineteenth century. At that time, the complete tour of Paris served 29 stations : 6 stations on the Auteuil line and 23 for External competition was not the only explanation for the decline of the urban passenger service afforded by the the Petite Ceinture. Travelling times were Petite Ceinture. An internal competition between the passenger and freight transport services took place. The last 1 hour 30 mins and 1 hour 21mins. In 1903, travel one was far more profitable for private companies operating the Petite Ceinture. Freight traffic halted further time was reduced during slack hours to 1 hour development of the urban passenger service by electric traction studied at the end of 1900. 10 mins or a commercial speed of 27 kilometers Finally, on the night of the 22th to 23rd July 1934, after more than 70 years of existence, the urban passenger service per hour, equivalent to a current metro line. of the Petite Ceinture was transferred to the road, becoming the PC bus line which takes its name from the initials of the Petite Ceinture. In the west of Paris, the Auteuil line, electrified in the 1920s, operated a passenger service until A view of the station built for the 1900 Universal Exhibition. 1985. A part of its route is used today by the RER C line.

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