A history of the Secret Paris Railway. “Ceinture” means belt and this railway was like a belt, as it formed a ring around Paris. The Ouest company had opened a 'Reuilly' freight station off of its Paris-Vincennes line in 1877, and the Ceinture Rive Gauche 'Bel-Air' junction opened to freight service two years later. The Petite Ceinture is a long abandoned train track that was built some 150 years ago around the periphery of Paris. Today, you can access 6.5 kilometres of parks and cultural activities on the restored Petite Ceinture line at different spots all around Paris. [84], The Nord company alone ran the Petite Ceinture (Rive Gauche, Rive Droite, Courcelles) from 1935, which meant the closing of the Ceinture Syndicate-owned La Chapelle-Saint-Denis engine hangars. 31 July 2015 by Gregory Ross 3332 1 . Freight traffic had actually accelerated since the Petite Ceinture passenger service ended; the Tolbiac freight yard was renovated from 1954, and from 1972, Gobelins-Marchandes became an underground station with access ramps for trucks making deliveries to local commerces. it passes above and below the streets of the city. When we exit the first tunnel (1.2 km) we are in Paris 20. [34], Meanwhile, the Ouest company's passenger-only Paris-Auteuil line had been running trains every half hour in the mornings, and every twenty minutes in the afternoon, between its Saint-Lazare terminus, 'Batignolles-Clichy', 'Courcelles-Levallois', Neuilly-Porte Maillot', 'Avenue de l'Impératrice' (later 'avenue Foch'), 'Passy' and 'Auteuil' (terminus) stations since its 1854 opening. Is is pretty safe to walk in these areas? Today it is abandoned and little known, preserved by indecision over its future. [69] Just to the west of there the same year, the Ceinture opened a 'Paris-Brancion' livestock station below the still-expanding 'Vaugirard' slaughterhouses,[70] and the Charonne-Marchandises freight-station expanded in 1904. [citation needed], The Ouest company, in light of the upcoming 1900 Universal Exposition, was granted a concession on 6 July 1896 to extend its Moulineaux line from its Champ de Mars terminus to a new 'Invalides' station;[56] the Ouest not only extended its line, but lowered its river-hugging length into a trench to eliminate its railway crossings at every bridge and added four new, minuscule, Chinese-pagoda-esque stations: travelling from the Ceinture inwards, one passed 'pont Mirabeau' (later 'Javel'), 'pont de Grenelle', 'de la Bourdonnais' and 'pont de l’Alma' before reaching the 'Invalides' terminus. Although maintained as a freight line, even this use of the Petite Ceinture had come to a practical standstill by the 1980s. In earlier state-rail-company negotiations, the state had obtained the possibility of buying the Auteuil line back from the Ouest company,[24] and they used this as leverage to get the company to agree to signing a Ceinture Rive Gauche concession convention on 31 May 1865. What is the Petite Ceinture? With the introduction of the Metro in the early 1900s, the service gradually became redundant, and was officially closed in 1934. The ensemble is phantasmagorical and a little bit disturbing. Hopefully we will make it to Paris soon so we can put your info to good use! I wouldn’t mind stopping at La REcyclerie for lunch too–looks like a great find. [36], While planning to replace Paris several intra muros slaughterhouses with a single complex near La Villette in 1859, Napoleon III demanded that the new slaughterhouse be connected to the Ceinture by rail, a plan that became a concession and decree on 19 October 1864. I would say YES but I also recommend not to walk alone and only during daylight. This railway from 1852 was a circular connection between the main railway stops and ran within the fortified walls of the city. Since the rail barons of the time were persuaded that direct connection to a competing line would endanger their control over their respective region monopolies, there was no company inter-station service of any kind: freight and passengers travelling between regions of France had no choice but to commute from station to station by road through the congested capital.[5]. Thanks so much for sharing this truly interesting point of view. De spoorbaan ligt aan de rand van elk arrondissement dicht tegen de boulevard Périphérique, loopt vaak door tunnels of wordt aan het oog onttrokken door hoge gebouwen. Although the Syndicate-owned portion of the line was freight-only in its first years, after the creation of a passenger service from 1862, the Chemin de fer de Ceinture became Paris' first metro-like urban transport, and even more so after the 'Ceinture Rive Gauche' passenger-and-freight section began. Definitely sounds like an off the beaten path way of exploring the area! Inside Parc des Buttes Chaumont, right after the bridge which crosses the rails (on the left side), there is a little path going downhill. I wish more places would have the forethought to smartly repurpose open land like that. To answer your question related to the slideshow I sent you an email, hope it helps! Certainly a colorful place for exploring. It is worth mentioning that, during the above, Paris had doubled in size: from 1860, Paris annexed all the 'country communes' between its city tax walls and the fortifications, which put the formerly countryside Ceinture line within the new City limits. It exits Paris in a tunnel ending in Clichy. [79], The number of passengers on the Syndicate Ceinture had dropped to 10,247,533 by 1920,[62] and to 9,440,524 by 1922. 0 Print This Post E-Mail article. [51] The open-second-level cars had been the cause of a few under-tunnel-and-bridge deaths and a few suicides over the years, and, under pressure from the state, began to replace them progressively with new single-level cars, profiting also from the occasion to replace Ouest material (that they were still using since the Ceinture Syndicate merger) with cars owned by the Syndicate itself. Beginning as two distinct 'Ceinture Syndicate' freight and 'Paris-Auteuil' passenger lines from 1851, these lines formed an arc that surrounded the northern two thirds of Paris, an arc tha… Along 500 meters, these abandoned train tracks are the common thread of an unusual landscape formed by flora and fauna typical of industrial wastelands. If you like to explore Paris’s hidden gems and the romance of abandonment, these abandoned train stations, and railroads in the heart of Paris are for you. Quirky Parisian explorers with a preference for the less known sights, we are continuously looking for new ideas and tips to bring you the best of the City of Light. . With the temporary addition of the Est company's Paris-Vincennes trains to the Ceinture schedule, its train cadence for the duration of the Exposition rose to one every fifteen minutes, and passengers to the Champ de Mars passed 50,000 per day. [82], The end of the Petitie Ceinture's passenger service was also the dissolution of the Grande-Ceinture-Petite-Ceinture Syndicate, and the concession obligations were divided between the Est, Nord and État (that had since bought the Ouest company) railway companies in a decree on 23 October 1934. [57], Several other improvements as the 1900 Universal Exposition approached: a temporary 'Claude Decaen' stop (that would become permanent from 1906) to serve Exposition installations in the Parc de Vincennes,[58] new Ceinture Syndicate cars and engines (more Nord-built 030Ts),[59] electric lighting for all 186 cars,[60] and the Champ de Mars station was modified with, in addition to its platforms serving for trains continuing to Invalides, twenty platforms as a terminus for trains from all destinations. I liked the 16 part and the 18 to 19 part. This walk is especially pleasant in the summer time and probably the most interesting one for nature lovers. Paris used to have a railway that encircled the city. You have a wonderful blog, We are looking forward to following along with you. I am happy that a group of teenagers is walking not far from us because the tunnel was scary. Cheryl – Adventuredawgs.com, Thanks for your kind comment Cheryl! Everything was silent asides from the occasional drip, drip of overhead water and the crunch, crunch of gravel beneath our boots. The … Anastasia Bow-Bertrand explores the past, present and future of the near-forgotten railroad La Petite Ceinture, Paris.Dating from the nineteenth century, its original commercial transportation uses were abandoned, and an underground culture and environmental treasure took their place. [66] The Ouest company, perhaps already predicting the inevitable, withdrew its engines and cars from Ceinture circulation after its 'Boulainvilliers' service began from 1901;[66] the Ceinture Syndicate replaced these with material of its own and adjusted its train schedules to fill in the slack: fifteen new passenger-train engines, Nord 230Ts, arriving between 1902 and 1903,[67] reduced the time it took for a full-circle trip by ten minutes. D’ores et déjà, découvrez les différents lieux de la promenade. What a cool and unique look at Paris! [73], Freight, on the other hand, was even increasing: Between 1905 and 1911, it added new Ceinture-access junctions to its Aubervilliers freight yard (to the Nord-Est junction and to the Ceinture line by its Pont de Flandre station), added direct-access junctions to the northern and southern junctions of the Belleville-Villette freight yard, and expanded its Gobelins freight yard. [27] All that remained was the portion of rail connecting the Auteuil lines to the Ceinture Rive Droite under the railway lines from the (rebuilt and renamed since 1853) Gare St-Lazare: the underpass construction began in February 1867, and it and its new station, Courcelles-Ceinture, began service from 25 March 1869. Along the nature trail, we can discover the city’s biological diversity: grassland, coppice, and afforestation. [72] The Ceinture syndicate reduced train frequency again that year, with only four trains an hour in each direction at peak hours, and two trains an hour for the rest of the day. Geplaatst in La Petite Ceinture,Paris Insolite De Petite Ceinture in het 13e arr In het Noordoosten van Parijs worden steeds meer stukjes van la Petite Ceinture door buurtinitiatieven in gebruik genomen als moestuinen, culturele centra, hispter lunchplekken etc. [65] The Ceinture Syndicate was already preparing to meet future competition through lowering passenger ticket prices and increasing the tempo of their trains during rush-hour periods. En 2006, la Ville de Paris et Réseau ferré de France (aujourd’hui SNCF Réseau), s’engagent conjointement sur les vocations et le devenir de la petite Ceinture par la … A train every fifteen minutes in both directions was the absolute minimum cadence, and, after the exposition's end, the service to the gare St-Lazare was re-established, with two of those trains travelling between St-Lazare and Courcelles-Ceinture, and the other two travelling in a full Courcelles-Ceinture/Courcelles-Ceinture circle, a 1h30 trip. This is where we can find the urban farm, a small garden, and a terrace. La Petite Ceinture, or Little Belt, was the brainchild of Napoleon III and Baron Haussmann, who together razed much of France’s capital to create the Paris we know today with its grand boulevards, butter-hued buildings, tree-lined avenues, and open spaces. [88], In 2007, several projects were initiated to rehabilitate the old chemin de fer and transform it into an urban park. Recently we went on a little impromptu adventure that the kids loved and reminded us of all those trespassing adventures we ourselves took as kids. Once the Metro system was introduced, the old network became redundant and the tracks were abandoned. Some meters further we enter the second tunnel (1.3 km) which goes below Père Lachaise Cemetery! Paris was only half its present size in the years of the Ceinture's creation: its limits then were the city's 1784 Fermiers-Généraux tax wall that followed almost exactly today's Métro lines 6 and 2). Take the time to read the information panels about the incredible diversity of this ecosystem: grassland, wetland, limestone slopes, afforestation. However, the planning board opted for a line along the Boulevards des Maréchaux (Boulevards of the Marshals, a ring of boulevards, formerly a road to the inside of the City's former 'Fortifications' defences). Beginning as two distinct 'Ceinture Syndicate' freight and 'Paris-Auteuil' passenger lines from 1851, these lines formed an arc that surrounded the northern two thirds of Paris, an arc that would become a full circle of rail around the capital when its third Ceinture Rive Gauche section was built in 1867. Petite Ceinture Map /Plan Petite Ceinture Paris (green line). Paris' former Chemin de fer de Petite Ceinture, also colloquially known as La Petite Ceinture, was a circular railway built as a means to supply the city's fortification walls, and as a connection between Paris' railway termini. Unfortunately, the access to the rail tracks in this section is opened only in few occasions, usually related to Nature festivals or events. Happy Travels, This pedestrian lane opened in 2013 and has been fitted out along the line of the ‘Petite Ceinture’, a former railway built around Paris but unused since the seventies. [76] From then the only connection to the Gare St-Lazare from the ceinture was through the Boulainvilliers antenna (electrified since 1919), but this service, little used by passengers, ended from 1924. In een beroemde stad als Parijs moet je als toerist extra je best doen om nog een verborgen plekje te kunnen ontdekken, maar gelukkig is Parijs een stad met vele bijzondere geheimen waarvan de Parijzenaren soms zelfs niet weten dat ze bestaan. Disused since 1934, its tracks are now a haven for a rare biodiversity of wild flowers and fauna; it boasts more than 200 species of plants and more than 70 animal species. We don’t suggest going alone either. Visiting some of the sections of La Petite Ceinture de Paris will be a priority for us when we visit Paris. [29] From 1861, the North company took over providing locomotion with seven new 040 T (numbered 551-557), engines that would become the signature Ceinture locomotive. Discover Paris off the beaten path and take a walk along the abandoned railways of the 15th arrondissement. [89], On 23 March 2019, a section in the 20th arrondissement opened to the public.[90]. The track-spanning bridge between station platforms extends the rue de la Mare, Initially a Merchandise station; Later opened to passengers, Partly destroyed, land use presently being debated. [17] This line was planned as a passenger-only service created mainly for the Parisian bourgeoisie destined for their country homes to the south-west of the city, and had nothing at all to do with the freight-only Ceinture line, but the government indicated in the concession agreement that the line was to be "an extension of the Chemin de fer de Ceinture". There is a railway line that circles Paris called la Petite Ceinture (the little belt). La Petite Ceinture In 1852 -1869 a 'belt' railway ran around Paris connecting it to the main train stations, known as La Petite Ceinture, now-a-days it is abandoned but sections of it have be urbanised and transformed into a pedestrian way. The morning of our discovery there were several locals jogging along the path or young mothers out pushing prams. amzn_assoc_linkid = "3d1a61ec99f162fed63e91abd99397ce"; Along the 1,3 km walk, we can see an abandoned train station, a couple of wooden chalets and some train signs. La Petite Ceinture de Paris. It is uncovered in many places, but as it is below street level, it is not obvious. If you can only do one part of these abandoned railroads, we suggest La Petite Ceinture Paris 15. The “petite ceinture” is a lost space around Paris. Great look at a little history of Paris. Het betekend letterlijk vertaald : De kleine ronde. Today only four short sections of abandoned railroads are converted into green spaces and opened to the public in Paris 12, Paris 13, Paris 15 and Paris 16. What a wonderful way of exploring Paris, a really unique suggestion. [2] By the end of the decade, France's rail was ruled by five distinct railway companies, each with their own exclusive monopoly over their respective regions of France.[3][4]. A trip on the Petite Ceinture – Photo Story by Linda Mak. As a result, the passenger service stopped in 1934, when the metro reached its maturity. The railroad had been abandoned. Glad that you like the blog, there is much love on it! Een oude spoorlijn met station. Today La Gare de Charonne (1867-1934) is a modern concert hall called La Flèche d’Or (102 bis rue de Bagnolet). The Petite Ceinture is a former railway line, which once encircled Paris inside the Boulevards des Maréchaux. The line is also dotted with entry points to the Paris catacombs, so it … amzn_assoc_title = ""; Dit keer was dat 1 gedeelte van de kleine riem (la Petite Ceinture) te bezoeken. Paris Walks: La Petite Ceinture. In 2017, the - Petite Ceinture - remained a unique space within the Parisian landscape, playing a role in the history of the city, rooted in the collective imagination, both mysterious and preserved, as well as fragile and much sought after. In 1852 -1869 a 'belt' railway ran around Paris connecting it to the main train stations, known as La Petite Ceinture, now-a-days it is abandoned but sections of it have be urbanised and transformed into a pedestrian way.