The French National Railways used to run a considerable number of lines, a few of which still operate mostly in tourist areas, such as the St Gervais-Vallorcine (Alps) and the "Petit Train Jaune" (little yellow train) in the Pyrenees. The original French scheme was that every sous-prefecture should be rail connected. Extensive gauge lines were also built for the sugar-beet industry in the north often using ex-military equipment after the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

Decauville Decauville () was a manufacturing company which was founded by Paul Decauville (1846–1922), a French pioneer in industrial railways. Decauville's major innovation was the use of ready-made sections of light, narrow gauge track fastened to stee ...

was a famous French manufacturer of industrial narrow-gauge railway equipment and equipped one of the most extensive regional narrow-gauge railway, the

Chemins de fer du Calvados The Chemins de Fer du Calvados was a narrow gauge railway in the département of Calvados. History The railway was originally planned as a line. The département had actually accepted a tender for the construction of such a line but with int ...

. Corsica has a narrow-gauge network of two lines following the coast line, that are connected by one line crossing the island through highly mountainous terrain. The

petit train d'Artouste The Petit train d'Artouste is a narrow gauge tourist railway situated in the French Pyrenees close to the Spanish border, some south of the town of Pau, and within the ''commune'' of Laruns. The line runs high above the headwaters of the Gave d' ...

, a tourist line in the

Pyrenees The Pyrenees (; es, Pirineos ; french: Pyrénées ; ca, Pirineu ; eu, Pirinioak ; oc, Pirenèus ; an, Pirineus) is a mountain range straddling the border of France and Spain. It extends nearly from its union with the Cantabrian Mountains to ...

, uses gauge.

Narrow-gauge funiculars

Funiculars of Lyon The Funiculars of Lyon (Funiculaires de Lyon) is a network of funicular railways in Lyon, France. Of the five lines once in existence, only the two routes on the Fourvière hill remain in operation, with the rest of the network now either closed, ...

* Funiculaire du Perce-Neige *

Funival The Funival is a gauge funicular railway in Val-d'Isère, France The Funival starts above ground in La Daille and after a few hundred meters it enters a tunnel ending at the mountain station on top of the ''Bellevarde''. The Funival uses two ...

Funiculaire de Thonon-les-Bains The Funiculaire de Thonon-les-Bains, or Thonon-les-Bains Funicular, is a funicular railway in the spa town of Thonon-les-Bains, in the French ''département'' of Haute-Savoie. The line links the Belvedere, in the city centre, to the port of Rive ...

* Grand-Hôtel du Cap-Ferrat funicular; operating

*
Belleville funicular tramway The Belleville funicular tramway (french: tramway funiculaire de Belleville) was a cable car which from 1891 to 1924 connected the Place de la République in Paris to the Église Saint-Jean-Baptiste de Belleville, on a hill in the Belleville ...
(1891-1924) *
Chemin de fer d'Anvin à Calais The Chemin de fer d'Anvin à Calais was a railway from Calais to Anvin, in the Pas-de-Calais department of France. It opened in 1881 and closed in 1955. Background In France, the building of railways was controlled by the Government. This a ...
(1881-1955) *
Chemin de fer de Boulogne à Bonningues The Chemin de Fer de Boulogne à Bonningues (CF de BB) was a gauge railway from Boulogne to Bonningues-lès-Ardres, Pas-de-Calais, France, where it had a connection with the Chemin de fer d'Anvin à Calais. It opened in 1900 and closed in 19 ...
(1900-48) * Chemin de fer de La Mure (1888-2010) * Chemin de fer des Côtes-du-Nord (1905-56) * Chemin de fer du Blanc-Argent *
Chemin de fer du Cambrésis The Chemin de fer du Cambrésis was a long metre gauge railway in the Nord and Aisne departments of France. There were four lines with Caudry at the centre. History The Cambrésis railway opened in 1881. It was a ''voies ferrées d'intérêt ...
(1881-1960) *
Chemin de fer du Finistère Chemin or Le Chemin may refer to: Arts and media * ''Le chemin'' (Emmanuel Moire album), 2013 album by French singer Emmanuel Moire * ''Le chemin'' (Kyo album), 2003 album by French band Kyo ** "Le Chemin" (song), title song from same-titled Kyo ...
(1893-1946) *
Chemin de fer du Montenvers The Montenvers Railway or Chemin de fer du Montenvers is a rack railway line in the Haute-Savoie department of France. The line runs from a connection with the SNCF, in Chamonix, to the ''Hotel de Montenvers'' station, at the Mer de Glace, at ...
*
Chemin de fer du Vivarais The Chemin de fer du Vivarais (CFV) - often called ''Le Mastrou'' or ''Train de l'Ardèche'' - is a tourist railway in the Ardèche region of the South of France. The metre gauge line is long. The railway is renowned for its historical steam lo ...
*
Chemins de Fer d'Aire à Fruges et de Rimeux-Gournay à Berck The Chemins Company is a dietary supplement manufacturer based in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The company, founded in 1974 by James Cameron, became embroiled in a series of criminal investigations in 1994 after a woman died and more than 100 other ...
(1891-1955) *
Chemins de fer de la Corse Chemins de fer de la Corse ( co, Camini di Ferru di a Corsica) (CFC) is the name of the regional rail network serving the French island of Corsica. It is centred on the town of Ponte Leccia, from which three main lines radiate to Ajaccio, Bast ...
* Chemins de fer de Provence *
Chemins de fer du Morbihan The Chemins de fer du Morbihan (CM) was a metre gauge railway in Morbihan, France, with some track in Loire-Inférieure. The first lines opened in 1902 and the system had a total extent of . History The CM was a ''Voie Ferrées d'Interêt Lo ...
(1902-48) *
Funiculaire de Pau The Funiculaire de Pau, or Pau Funicular, is a funicular railway in the city of Pau in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques ''département'' of southwestern France. It links the Boulevard des Pyrénées, on the level of the city centre and the Château ...
*
Funiculaire de Saint-Hilaire du Touvet The Funiculaire de Saint-Hilaire du Touvet, or Saint-Hilaire du Touvet Funicular, is a funicular railway in the département of Isère in the Rhône-Alpes region of France. It links Montfort on the road between Grenoble and Chambéry, with the vi ...
* Funiculaire du Pic du Jer *
Funiculars of Lyon The Funiculars of Lyon (Funiculaires de Lyon) is a network of funicular railways in Lyon, France. Of the five lines once in existence, only the two routes on the Fourvière hill remain in operation, with the rest of the network now either closed, ...
*
Ligne de Cerdagne The ''Ligne de Cerdagne'', usually referred to as ''Le Petit Train Jaune'' ( en, Little Yellow Train, ca, Tren Groc), is a gauge railway that runs from Villefranche-de-Conflent to Latour-de-Carol- Enveitg in the French Pyrenees. Construction s ...
*
Petit train de la Rhune The Petit train de la Rhune or (in Basque) Larrungo tren ttipia is a metre gauge rack railway in France at the western end of the Pyrenees, in the Basque Country. It links the Col de Saint-Ignace, some to the east of Saint-Jean-de-Luz, to the s ...
* PO Corrèze (1904-70) * Réseau Albert (1889-1955) *
Réseau Breton The Réseau Breton (RB) is a , standard gauge, and former , metre gauge, railway in Finistère, France, with a few kilometres of line in Côtes d'Armor, Ille-et-Vilaine and Morbihan. The hub of the system was Carhaix. The metre gauge lines were ...
* Réseau des Bains de Mer (1887-1951) ** Chemin de fer de la Baie de Somme * Saint-Étienne tramway *
Saint-Gervais–Vallorcine railway The Saint-Gervais–Vallorcine railway ( French: ''Ligne de Saint-Gervais-les-Bains-Le Fayet à Vallorcine''), also known as the Saint-Gervais–Vallorcine Line, is a single-track long metre gauge railway in France connecting the SNCF's Sain ...
*
Train des pignes The Train des Pignes is a set of four metre gauge railways that once existed in the departments of Alpes-Maritimes (06), Var (83), Alpes-de-Haute-Provence (04) and Bouches-du-Rhône (13) in the Provence-Alpes-Côte-d'Azur (PACA) région in sou ...
* Tramway d'Avranches (1907-14) * Tramway à vapeur d'Ardres à Pont d'Ardres (1902-55) * Tramway du Mont-Blanc * Tramways Électrique du Finistère (1903-32)

* CF Economiques Forestiers des Landes (1907-34)

* ; 6.1 km, operating

* Chemin de Fer de la Vallée de l'Ouche; * Chemin de Fer de Saint-Eutrope; 2.5 km, defunct * ; 5.5 km, operating * Chemin de Fer des Combes; operating * ; 4 km, operating * ; 1.3 km, operating * Chemin de fer du Val de Passey at Choloy-Ménillot *
Chemins de fer du Calvados The Chemins de Fer du Calvados was a narrow gauge railway in the département of Calvados. History The railway was originally planned as a line. The département had actually accepted a tender for the construction of such a line but with int ...
; (1891-1944) * Compagnie du chemin de fer de Semur en Vallon * Conservatoire provençal de patrimoine de véhicules anciens *
Froissy Dompierre Light Railway The Froissy Dompierre Light Railway (french: Chemin de fer Froissy-Dompierre, CFCD) is a narrow gauge light railway running from Froissy (a hamlet of La Neuville-lès-Bray) to Dompierre-Becquincourt, through Cappy, in the Somme department ...
; operating * Le petit train de Bligny sur Ouche * ; 2.5 km, operating * ; 6 km, operating * ; 3 km, operating * * ; 2.5 km, operating * ; 3 km, operating * ; 1.8 km, operating * Tramway de Deauville; (1876-1905) * Tramway de Pithiviers à Toury; 80 km, part (30 km) operating as a heritage railway * * * Tramway de Royan * Tramway du Cap-Ferret; operating * * Trianon tramway; (1906-11) * Towing tramway along the Marne-Rhine Canal between Arzviller and
Niderviller Niderviller (; german: Niederweiler) is a commune in the Moselle department in Grand Est in north-eastern France. It is mostly known for the Niderviller pottery, established in 1735 and still producing there. Geography Niderviller is locate ...
.Towing tramways
/ref>

* Chemin de Fer Touristique du Tarn; original gauge * Jardin d'Acclimatation railway *
Petit train d'Artouste The Petit train d'Artouste is a narrow gauge tourist railway situated in the French Pyrenees close to the Spanish border, some south of the town of Pau, and within the ''commune'' of Laruns. The line runs high above the headwaters of the Gave d' ...

* Train de l'Andorge en Cevennes

See also
*
Decauville Decauville () was a manufacturing company which was founded by Paul Decauville (1846–1922), a French pioneer in industrial railways. Decauville's major innovation was the use of ready-made sections of light, narrow gauge track fastened to stee ...
*
Trench railways Trench railways represented military adaptation of early 20th-century railway technology to the problem of keeping soldiers supplied during the static trench warfare phase of World War I. The large concentrations of soldiers and artillery at the f ...
* Voie ferrée d'intérêt local *
Voie Sacrée The Voie Sacrée ("Sacred Way") is a road that connects Bar-le-Duc to Verdun (Meuse), France. It was given its name because of the vital role it played during the Battle of Verdun in World War I. Use during WWI After March 1916, along the of ...
, see ''Le Chemin de Fer Meusien''

References

Notes

Bibliography
* * * * *

External links
{{Europe in topic, Narrow-gauge railways in