La Petite Ceinture: What Happened to Paris's Lost Railway?

"If you're watching this video in the future..." I think actually we all are.

Most cities would kill for an orbital railway yet Paris has one but doesn’t want to use it. Madness.

Someone drew a nice image of the Eiffel Tower at 7:00 for tourists to easily find it when visiting the railway! So clever!

6:58: "If you would like to take a romantic trip [...]" - shows map with a phallic object on top of it. That for sure is one way to be romantic, Tim ;)

I lived in Paris for 21 years and I still learned some things in this great video !
"Fun" fact : we used to explore the tracks as kid, until one day we were chased after by local gang members that were using the tunnels to deal drugs. I remember running through an unlit tunnel for what seemed like an eternity, and emerging on the other side, realizing we probably just escaped death. Fun times !

4:05 I see Jay Foreman has edited this part given the SFX.

Incredible how a system can go from overwhelming needed, to obsolete, back to needed over the course of time.

A slight note in the end from you that was incredibly helpful. My wife needs to use a wheelchair most of the time and loves exploring stuff like this with me. Disabled people are so often left out or given the scraps of accessible places and services. Tank you.

1:30 Thomas theme if you listen closely

As a French guy, I am blown away by your excellent pronunciation! Keep it up

hey great video. I'm a train conductor and worked several years in paris rer C gare d'austerlitz/orleans (the trains you show around 6:20), your ending assumption is perfectly right. Part of the Petit ceinture will be used again for a new rer near Paris saint Lazare :)


You could easily access it through a station in the ligne c (where the old ligne and the new join) but it was closed off recently (3 years ago).


What's funny is the fact that the parts still in activity became tunnel because they build road over it and closed the roofs but the aera not used were left alone.

Surely the time has come to reopen this very important but so understated orbital railway. It is great that sncf has retained the route with tracks. If that was in the UK, it would have been ripped up, and sold off piecemeal, then when people wanted it, they couldn't because it is lost forever.
It is as it stands, a great ribbon of history and intrigue.

6:08 Nice subtle circle of life piano cover that perfectly fits the rebirth as part of a new railway line.

"I can be romanit too "


Aaww!


"I brought you all to paris"


Ooh!



"To see an abandoned railway"


Fwoah!

So interesting!  I love how you combine history, geography and humor into all your post! Keep up the great work!

I laughed hard at the "bearded man in a checkered shirt" comment, haha. Great video!

What a lovely story! As a US resident, when I heard the question "Why is this rail line in the middle of a developed city abandoned", I imagined greedy businessmen and politicians cancelling mass transit in favor of automobiles. Instead, it's a wonderful step towards even better passenger service!

All in favor of making it a particle accelerator say "aye".

Hi. At one point they thought about re-using it for a tramway around Paris. But because some politicians of the 15e district had their garden next to the tracks this idea was definitively abandonned and they covered the tracks with those planks you can see in your video (but everything is removable just in case of emergency like some military needs) and went for those "green corridors" instead. In the meantime they built tramway lines on the boulevards instead or there, which costed a lot more and also took almost a half of those boulevards from the cars. Cheers.

Watching you come from not even 10K subs to where you are now has been such a grand journey. Thank you for your videos and for sharing