Chemin de fer de Petite Ceinture
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Photo: J.M. Schomburg 1997.
The Chemin de fer de Petite Ceinture was a Parisian railway that, from 1852, was a circular connection between Paris' main railroad stations around the outer rim of the city. In a state of abandon since 1934, its rails and a few stations still remain along much of its path, and the future of its yet-unurbanized terrain is the subject of much debate. There are today many amateurs of steam travel who look to the Petite Ceinture as a still-surviving element of bygone era; there also exist associations wishing to protect the abandoned railway as a witness to Paris' history.
Petite Ceinture (violet)
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[edit] Creation
The mid-1800s was a divided era for France. Its fear of the Prussians made it build walls to protect its capital to the outside world, but the centralised government wanted to use the latest technological rail developments to control France’s cross-country commerce through a web of railways that had Paris as a centre. The Chemin de Fer de Ceinture (only later to become the Petite Ceinture) was born as a meeting of these ideals.
[edit] Background - Paris' Fortifications, France's Railway plans
French Prime Minister Adolphe Thiers had his project for a ring of massive fortifications and forts around Paris voted into existence on the 1st of February 1841. Paris then extended only to its Fermiers-Généraux tax wall limitations (in existence since 1784, running today’s metro lines 6 and 2), and the fortifications echoed its path in a ring roughly ten kilometres larger in diameter. A traveller leaving the city gates to visit the "intra-muros" land between the two walls, once past a strip of noisy tax-free-territory bars and cabarets just outside the city gates, would find himself in a quiet countryside marred by few constructions.
King Louis-Philippe had grandiose plans for France's railway network, and in 1848 drew plans for a spiderweb "star" of railway that connected Paris as the centre of a spider-web of rail to all borders of France. 1848 was also a year of revolution, and the replacement Second Republic government found that not only were the country’s coffers almost empty, but many of the rail companies under contract with the pre-revolution government were going bankrupt. To make matters worse, the Prussian monarchy had regained the throne in a revolution of their own that year, once again becoming a danger to Republican France; France's Generals wanted to ready their fortifications for war, and that meant supplying it and its outer fortresses in arms and ammunition. So when the idea of a circular railway was first seriously considered, the government had no money to pay for it.
[edit] The Companies
At the same time they noted the lack of rail connection between Paris’ main stations, any goods had to pass from one line to another by horse and wagon. Though Paris then had five major stations run by five railway companies, they were unwilling to deal with one another in fear of losing their transport monopoly through their respective regions. The government tried to get them to pay a share of a connecting railway around Paris’ Right Bank fortifications between St-Lazare and Austerlitz stations, and tried even coercion and blackmail to do so[citation needed]. The best that the short-lived IInd Republic government could do was force the companies into merger negotiations and to make private deals against one another.
[edit] The Chemin de Fer de Ceinture Rive Droite
The real birth of the Chemin de Fer de Ceinture came with Napoleon III’s rise to power on the 2nd of December 1851. Pierre Magne, the new Ministre des Traveaux Publics (minister of public works) established the finance for the build of the line on 2 December 1851. Pierre Magne offered to build everything for the proposed arc of railway but the stations, engines and rolling stock, and this in exchange for a contribution of 1,000,000 francs from each company participating in the venture. All five (with the state filling in for the bankrupt Orleans company) had signed the concession for the Right Bank arc of rail by the 10th of the same month, but united into a unique ‘Syndicat de Chemin de fer de Ceinture’. Though the ‘cahier des charges’ – a list of requisites to fulfil in order to keep the concession – stated that they should build installations and provide a means of transport fit for passenger traffic, the companies saw interest only in the more profitable exchange of freight. A provisional service between Bâtignoles and La Chapelle, including a junction with La Villette started on on 15 November 1852. The first completed lengths of rail were inaugurated in a small ceremony on the 12th of December 1852. The line between Pont du Nord and La Chapelle was given to the Est in November 1853. On 25 March 1854 the line was extended from La Chapelle to Ivry, then started extensive work on a large viaduct of more than 700m long near Pont de Flandre to avoid destroying industrial establishements. To the East, two tunnels of more than 1000m each had to be dug to avoid the hills of Belleville and Charonne. In 1855, two goods yards were opened at Charonne and La Villette. To the North-West of the city, Ouest opened its Ligne d'Auteuil on 2 May 1854. It would take another eight years for the Ceinture Syndicate to provide a passenger service on its arc of rail; this was operational from 14 July 1862.
[edit] The Ouest Company's "Paris à Auteuil" Passenger Line
See La Ligne d'Auteuil.
In a stance (and direction) completely opposite that of the "freight-only" Ceinture Syndicate, the Pereire-owned ‘Ouest’ railway company began building a local passenger line from 1852. This line of rail left its Saint-Lazare station to follow the inside of Paris’ western fortifications to the Bourgeoise riverside village of Auteuil to the south. The Paris-Auteuil passenger line was inaugurated on the 5th of June 1854, and continued service until 1985.
[edit] The Chemin de Fer de Ceinture Rive Gauche
Construction ended on 27 February 1867. The last portion of track the linking line from Javel to Champs de Mars just in time for the 1867 Exposition Universelle. The petite Ceinture was looped on 25 March 1869 with the opening of the line between Courcelles and Clichy, the line was built under the St Lazare main line. On time for the 1889 Exposition Universelle, many level crossings were removed. The last extension of the petite Ceinture was the junction line from Champs de Mars to Passy for the 1900 Exposition Universelle. Little by Little, traffic would diminish, until the lines closed, on 1924 on the Champs de Mars branch and on 1934 for the PC (petite Ceinture). Only the Ligne d'Auteuil which was electrified in 1925 would remain open.
[edit] Abandonment
The Petite Ceinture is largely unused. The last portion to be in regular use was the Ligne d'Auteuil up until 1985. The interconnection between Gare du Nord and Gare de l'Est was in use up until the 2000s but has now seen use fall dramatically. Passenger and freight rail services from both stations are hauled by engines from the SNCF depots at La Chapelle and Pantin and seldom exchange rolling stock. The Grande Ceinture is currently used to swap stock and as a diversion line.
Projects were afoot to use parts of the Petite Ceinture as a tramway but the Boulevard des Maréchaux, a ring of boulevards encircling Paris will be used instead [1].
[edit] Recuperation
[edit] The VMI / RER C
The Ligne d'Auteuil closed in 1985 to make way for the newly opened RER C. The RER C has been extended to Montigny-Beauchamp and Argenteuil after the construction of a new tunnel crossing Paris North West. The line branches off at Champ de Mars, crosses the river Seine. From there the line is underground, indeed the Ligne d'Auteuil was covered in 1988 and the line between Henri Martin and Courcelles was reduced from 4 tracks down to 2. The line exits Paris in a tunnel that ends in Clichy.
[edit] References
- (French) Carrière, Bruno. La Saga de la Petite Ceinture, La Vie du Rail, 1991-2001. ISBN 2-902808-01-1
- (French) Histoire du réseau ferroviaire français, 1996, Editions de l'Ormet / Imprimerie Bayeusienne Graphique. ISBN 2-906575-22-4
[edit] External links
- (French) Information about current events and construction related to the Petite Ceinture
- (French) Information about the Petite Ceinture within the 18ieme and 19ieme arrondissements
- (French) Acces information, maps, recent pictures (2007)
- Illustrated review of Georges Méliès' 1898 film 'Panorama from Top of a Moving Train' ('Panorama pris d’un train en marche'), believed to have been filmed along the route
