Chemin de Fer de Petite Ceinture

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Petite Ceinture
Passenger train on the Petite Ceinture, around 1900
Route number (SNCF) :	980,000
Route length:	32 km
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Legend Auteuil railway line Courcelles ceinture Courcelles-Levallois Neuilly-Porte Maillot Avenue du Bois-de-Boulogne Avenue Henri Martin Passy Auteuil-Boulogne Point du jour Pont du Point-du-Jour ( Seine ) Grenelle Railway line of the invalid Vaugirard Ceinture Abattoirs de Vaugirard Paris – Brest railway line West Ceinture Montrouge Parc de Montsouris Paris – Sceaux railway line 15.780 La Glacière-Gentilly La Maison Blanche Les Gobelins 0.252 Tapestry tunnel (479 m) 0.000 17.810 Orléans-Ceinture 18,319 Paris – Bordeaux railway line 18,834 18,874 Pont national ( Seine ) (175 m) 19.050 19.111 La Rapée-Bercy 19,556 19.628 Paris – Marseille railway line (old line) Bercy Ceinture Rue Claude Decaen 20.993 Vincennes railway line Bel Air Ceinture Avenue de Vincennes Rue d'Avron 22.156 Charonne 23,321 Tunnel de Charonne (1018 m) 24,339 Sorbier incision (tranche) (141 m) 24,489 Sorbier tunnel (144 m) Ménilmontant 24.884 Belleville Tunnel (1125 m) 26,137 26,418 Belleville-Villette 26,672 Paris-Bestiaux 27.161 Canal de l'Ourcq (44 m) 27,351 Viaduct of La Villette (416 m) Pont de Flandre Est-Ceinture Paris – Strasbourg railway line 28,560 28.779 28,969 La Chapelle-Évangile  (formerly La Chapelle-Saint-Denis) Paris – Lille railway line Ornano boulevard 30,940 Tunnel de Saint-Ouen (513 m) Avenue de Saint-Ouen 31,706 to Les Docks Avenue de Clichy to Ermont (VMI / RER C) St. Lazare II , III , IV , V , VI to Saint-Lazare Courcelles – Levallois Auteuil railway line

The Chemin de Fer de Petite Ceinture (Little Ring Railway) was a 32 kilometer long railway line circumnavigating Paris , which from 1852 connected the terminus in the city with each other. It ran within the city limits largely along the Thiers city fortifications , a defensive system built in the middle of the 19th century, as it was also intended to serve military purposes. Mostly shut down since 1934, their abundant tracks and stations have for decades been the subject of debates about development or preservation with regard to a possible reopening.

background

Petite Ceinture (red) and Thierssche Stadtbefestigung (black)

In the middle of the 19th century, the first private railway companies in France had built star-shaped railway lines from different parts of the country that ran towards Paris and each ended in their own terminal stations . Since the companies wanted to maintain regional monopolies and showed little inclination to cooperate , there was initially no connection between these stations.

Goods that had to be transported from one part of the country to the other via Paris because of this railway network structure were therefore reloaded on horse-drawn vehicles in the city , transported to the stations of the continuing lines and reloaded there. Travelers had to take the appropriate detours.

The terminus and their operators in Paris around 1848 were (clockwise):

• Gare Saint-Lazare on the route to Rouen , operated by the Compagnie du chemin de fer de Paris à Saint-Germain (founded 1835), from 1855 by the Compagnie des Chemins de fer de l'Ouest
• Gare du Nord , operated by the Compagnie des chemins de fer du Nord (founded 1846)
• Gare de Strasbourg (later Gare de l'Est ) on the route to Strasbourg , operated by the Compagnie du chemin de fer de Paris à Strasbourg (1849), from 1853 by the Compagnie des Chemins de fer de l'Est
• Gare de Lyon operated by the Chemins de fer de Paris à Lyon (founded 1849), from 1858 by the Compagnie des chemins de fer de Paris à Lyon et à la Méditerranée
• Gare d'Orléans (today Gare d'Austerlitz ), operated by the Compagnie du chemin de fer de Paris à Orléans (founded 1840)
• Embarcadère de Sceaux (now Gare de Denfert-Rochereau ), operated by the Compagnie du chemin de fer de Paris à Sceaux (1846)
• Gare de l'Ouest (later Gare Montparnasse ), operated by the Compagnie de Versailles-Rive Gauche (founded in 1840), from 1855 by the Chemins de fer de l'Ouest

The government tried to persuade these companies to build a joint link, but did not shrink from coercion and blackmail. The route should run on the right bank of the Seine ( Rive droite ) between the train stations Gare Saint-Lazare and Gare d'Orléans and be operated jointly by the companies. The utmost the short-term Republican government could achieve, however, consisted in forced merger negotiations between the operating companies and in private law contracts between them.

Chemin de Fer de Ceinture Rive droite

Ivry-Chevaleret station (since 1919: Ivry-sur-Seine), around 1900

230 G 353 on the Petite Ceinture at the Bel Air junction, 1985

Belleville-Villette station, 1985

The Petite Ceinture bridge over the Canal de l'Ourcq

The Pont du Point-du-Jour over the Seine connected the viaduct lines Viaduc du Point-du-Jour and Viaduc d'Auteuil

The actual hour of birth of the "railway belt" (Chemin de Fer de Ceinture) struck with the takeover of power by Napoléon III. on December 2, 1851. His Minister for Public Infrastructure, Pierre Magne, promised to finance the construction of the line on the same day. With the exception of the stations and vehicles , he offered to build everything for the proposed railway ring.

In return, each operating company had to pay a contribution of one million francs into the joint venture, with the French state taking over the contribution of the bankrupt Compagnie du chemin de fer de Paris à Orléans . On December 10, 1851, all companies signed the concession for the link on the right bank of the Seine and for the Syndicat de Chemin de Fer de Ceinture consortium .

A number of conditions were associated with the granting of the concession, including the establishment and operation of passenger transport . However, the operating companies were primarily interested in the more lucrative freight transport . It was not until July 14, 1862 that the Syndicat de Ceinture began to operate passenger traffic on the entire ring.

A first provisional freight transport between the railway station Batignolles (now Pont Cardinet , 1.55 km north of the Saint-Lazare station) and the operating agency Pont du Nord (connection to head Gare du Nord) was recorded on 15 November. 1852 This included a branch to the Paris cattle market Marché aux Bestiaux , which was later extended to the Abattoirs de la Villette slaughterhouses . The initially single-track, six-kilometer route was officially opened as part of a modest ceremony without the presence of high-ranking members of the government - the emperor inaugurated the winter circus on that day - on December 12, 1852. Shortly before 2 p.m., the train pulled by the locomotive reached "Meulan" Opening train with about 300 guests the Pont du Nord. At this bridge, the Petite Ceinture crosses the route of the northern railway. The operating site consisted of a turntable on which the freight wagons were turned 90 degrees by September 1853 and then pulled by horses to the Gare du Nord.

The section between Pont du Nord and Pont d'Aubervillers, which included the La Chapelle (-Saint-Denis) and La Villette stations, was opened on September 30, 1853. The Paris – Strasbourg line was also undercut by the ring line.

On December 31 of that year, the line was extended from there over the Seine bridge Pont National to Ivry-sur-Seine ( Paris – Bordeaux line ). In order to avoid the fragmentation of industrial companies, La Villette and the Canal de l'Ourcq were crossed on a viaduct . Difficult ground conditions made work difficult in the following area, sliding clay, destroyed lining walls and damaged residential buildings and a factory. The Père Lachaise cemetery had to be crossed in a 1018 m long tunnel (Tunnel de Charonne). Other tunnels in this area were the tunnel under the Belleville hill (1125 m) and the Sorbier tunnel (144 m). The latter was later connected to the tunnel de Charonne, with an incision in between, which became the longest tunnel of the Petite Ceinture at 1301 m. In 1855 the two freight stations Charonne and Belleville- Villette were able to start work.

The Paris – Auteuil passenger line

In the north-west of the city, the Compagnie de Paris à Saint Germain of the brothers Émile and Isaac Pereire opened the Auteuil line on May 2, 1854 . In sharp contrast to the pure freight route of the Syndicat de Ceinture , this was a purely local passenger route . They ran from Saint-Lazare train station along the western fortifications to the village of Auteuil in the south. After the merger with the Compagnie de Versailles-Rive Gauche in 1855, the line was operated by the Chemins de fer de l'Ouest .

Chemin de Fer de Ceinture Rive gauche

A Y 7400 in front of a freight train leaves the Gobelin tunnel, on the left the circular railway track, 1985

Vaugirard Ceinture station before 1914

As early as July 20, 1852, two railway lines had been linked by a link in the town of Viroflay, southwest of Paris . The connection between the tracks, which was opened on August 1, 1854, by the company operating Compagnie du chemin de fer de Paris à Saint-Germain and the Batignolles freight depot, was financed by the state, as the latter refused to contribute to the costs. From then on it was possible to transfer railway wagons from Ivry-Chevaleret station (from 1919: Ivry-sur-Seine) via Batignolles and Viroflay to the Vaugirard freight station in the south of Paris.

The construction of the link on the left bank of the Seine (French: Rive gauche ) was completed on February 27, 1867. The last section of the route to connect Javel - Champ de Mars was completed in time for the Paris World Exhibition in 1867 . With the opening of the line between Courcelle and Clichy on March 25, 1869, the "Little Belt" (Petite Ceinture) was closed, whereby the line had to be led in a short section under the Saint-Lazare main route.

In time for the World Exhibition in 1889, many level crossings were removed and the last extension of the Petite Ceinture with the crossing line Champs de Mars - Passy was carried out.

Shutdowns

Little by little, demand decreased until 1924 on the Champs de Mars junction and until 1934 on the entire Petite Ceinture, passenger trains were discontinued in favor of buses . The corresponding bus lines are still called “PC1” to “PC3” for “Petite Ceinture”. Only the Auteuil line, which was electrified in 1925, remained in service from Pont Cardinet to Auteuil.

After 1934, freight trains were still running on the route until the beginning of 1990. The Citroën plants in Grenelle (now Parc André Citroën ) were operated until 1976, the slaughterhouses in Rue de Vaugirard (now Parc Georges Brassens ) until 1979 and the Gare des Gobelins served under the Olympiaquartier in the 13th arrondissement . In the north and east, the route was used for train transfers between the stations until the end of the 1980s.

As of 2007, the Petite Ceinture has been abandoned as a closed ring. The signal systems are still in operation, however, as train traffic has not been completely stopped. The southern section (Rive gauche) was used, for example, to remove the rubble when expanding line 14 . The northern section between Porte de Clichy and Boulevard Victor , which is currently (2007) still used , has 23 km of rail. Individual nostalgia trips were carried out.

In the western section, the rails have now been completely dismantled and in summer 2006 the use of the route was the subject of negotiations between the owner Réseau Ferré de France (RFF) and the city of Paris. At the time of 2007, the route was interrupted due to work at the level of Avenue de France in the 13th arrondissement.

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  Special train on the bridge over the Cours de Vincennes, 1989

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  A CC 72000 in front of a dining car in the cut of Parc Montsouris , 2012

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  Route in the Parc Montsouris, 2013

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  Do Not Enter!
  The Pont National connects the left and right banks of the Seine (2006)

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  Route in the 13th arrondissement at the abandoned La Maison Blanche station, 2005

The VMI (RER C)

The former four-track line of the Auteuil line (in the background the building of the Avenue Henri Martin station) has been built over at this point since 1988

The Auteuil line was replaced in 1985 by the RER C , which opened in 1988 . This was extended to Montigny-Beauchamp and Argenteuil after the construction of a new tunnel that crosses the north-west of Paris . The branch of the Vallée de Montmorency – Invalides (VMI) line to Champ de Mars crosses the Seine on a bridge that was damaged in 1958. The route, which was built over in 1988, then runs underground. The section between Avenue Henri Martin and Courcelles was reduced from four to two tracks. The exit of the tunnel is in Clichy.

Recommissioning plans

Various plans to resume operations on the Petite Ceinture are currently being considered:

• Freight route: the city of Paris would like to reduce these occasional uses of the route;
• Metro or tram route : The tram lines T3a and T3b are in operation on the parallel Boulevards des Maréchaux , but at comparatively low travel speeds;
• as an avenue (corresponding to the Coulée verte René-Dumont ): In March 2006, the then mayor of Paris, Bertrand Delanoë , proposed that one of the two tracks should be planted with a row of trees in order to have the possibility of later re-use for rail purposes. This proposal became the subject of negotiations between the owner RFF and the city of Paris, which resulted in a treaty that has yet to be ratified by the Paris City Council.

Large belt / grande ceinture

US locomotive 141 R 840 in the Massy-Palaiseau station of the Grande Ceinture, 2001

The “small belt” was supplemented from 1877 by a “ large belt ” (Grande Ceinture) with the first section opened in 1877 between Noisy-le-Sec northeast of Paris and Villeneuve-Saint-Georges . The other routes built until 1886 touch, clockwise on the map from Villeneuve-Saint-Georges, the places Rungis (north of today's Orly airport , with a later parallel route south of Orly via Juvisy-sur-Orge ), Massy , Palaiseau , Versailles , Saint-Germain-en-Laye , Achères , Sartrouville and again Noisy-le-Sec. The Great Belt is about 160 km long.

Remarks

1. ^ The Embarcadère de Sceaux station deviated from this design.
2. ↑ Due to its spatial location, the Compagnie de Versailles-Rive Gauche was not involved.

Web links

Commons : Chemin de Fer de Petite Ceinture  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Website of the Association for the Preservation of the “Petite Ceinture” (history, projects, photos) (French)
• Photo gallery and videos ( Memento from August 18, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) ((French) / Dead Link, October 5, 2013)
• Image selection and display geographical (French)

literature

• Atelier Parisien d'urbanisme (Ed.): Étude propective sur le devenir de la Petite Ceinture . Paris 2011. (A 50-page, detailed study of the history and current state of the route). Retrieved May 23, 2014.
• Philippe Callé: The Petite Ceinture of Paris . In: Railways in Paris = Railway History Special 2 (2015). ISBN 978-3-937189-94-9 , pp. 42-45.
• Bruno Carrière: La Saga de la Petite Ceinture . 2003. ISBN 978-2-902808-01-4
• Marc Gayda: Histoire du réseau ferroviaire français . 2000. ISBN 978-2-906575-22-6

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Bruno Carrière: La saga de la Petite Ceinture. Tome 1 . Éditions La Vie du Rail, Paris 2017, ISBN 978-2-37062-048-4 , pp. 11 f .
2. ↑ Bruno Carrière: La saga de la Petite Ceinture. Tome 1 , p. 15.
3. ↑ Bruno Carrière: La saga de la Petite Ceinture. Tome 1 , p. 16 f.
4. ↑ Tunnel de Charonne in tunnels-ferroviaires.org, accessed on January 13, 2019
5. ↑ Bruno Carrière: La saga de la Petite Ceinture. Tome 1 , p. 108.