Every Railway Line in France, 1827 → Today

Описание: At its peak, France had more than 42,000 km of railway. Then a third of it vanished.

This is every railway line in France, drawn on the map in the year it opened: from an 18 km horse-drawn coal line near Saint-Étienne in 1827, through the great star of main lines from Paris, the Freycinet plan's line to every town, two world wars and the birth of the SNCF in 1938, to the TGV and the 574.8 km/h world record of 2007.

Every date, length and fact in this video was checked against independent sources before it went on the map, and the finished video was matched frame by frame against that verified list.

CHAPTERS
0:00 At its peak: 42,000 km
0:22 France's railways, 1827 – today
0:35 1827 – 1859: The pioneers
5:33 1860 – 1878: Filling the map
8:54 1879 – 1914: A line to every town
12:42 1915 – 1945: Wars and the SNCF
15:01 1946 – 1980: The modern era
16:45 1981 – today: The TGV era
19:42 France's railways today – and what comes next

KEY FACTS
• 1827: first railway, Saint-Étienne – Andrézieux, horse-drawn coal wagons
• 1837: Paris – Le Pecq, France's first passenger line with steam
• 1842: the railway law – a star of main lines from Paris to every frontier and coast
• 1 January 1938: the SNCF takes over the whole network – and starts cutting lines
• 27 September 1981: first TGV passengers, Paris – Lyon
• 3 April 2007: V150 TGV, 574.8 km/h, the record for a train on wheels
• Today: about 27,500 km of railway, including some 2,700 km of high-speed line

Grey lines on the map are railways that have closed. Where a closed line has no recorded closing year, it fades out during the documented closure waves.

SOURCES
Lines: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL) · Opening dates: SNCF, Wikidata, Wikipedia, historical studies · Map: Natural Earth
Photos: Wikimedia Commons (public domain, CC0, CC BY, CC BY-SA – author and licence shown on screen; full list in the pinned comment)
Sound: BigSoundBank (Joseph Sardin), CC0 · Narration: AI voice (ElevenLabs)

Which line runs past your town? Tell us in the comments.

#France #Railways #TGV #TrainHistory #SNCF #MapAnimation