Tourist Trains

Within France, the Petit Train de la Rhune (Pyrenees-Atlantic), Chemin de fer de La Mure (Isère), Vapeur du Trieux (Côtes-d'Armor) and Chemins de fer de Provence (Alpes Maritimes and Haute Provence) are small trains seemingly from another era, with their collector rolling stock, antique cars and electric or steam locomotives.

So where's the innovation? While urban transit systems are constantly modernizing to be the most efficient, here travel is deliberately geared to the tourism experience. Tourists do, in fact, comprise a large percentage of the ridership, and are looking for a social way to travel on dedicated lines in regions of exceptional interest.

Chemins de fer de Provence also plays an important role in social cohesion. Its rail line, still called "Train des Pignes" by locals, after the pine nuts city people brought back with them from the countryside, is a major driver of local development. The region's enclosed valleys limit the growth of public transit infrastructure. Yet there needs to be some way to tie together the villages, which are spaced far apart from one another. Veolia Transport therefore opted to rejuvenate the "Train des Pignes," so that it could fulfill its basic urban transit role in the Nice region and promote trade and exchanges between Nice and Digne.