ABSTRACT
This chapter highlights the socioeconomic process of the automobilisation of the public transport system in France. Based on new public and corporate sources, it focuses on the substitution of the automobile for collective modes of transport in the Paris region. The temporary end of tramway services before the Second World War is explained through an analysis of the success of the automobile. We adopt a multi-scale point of view and a multimodal perspective in order to understand how the modern French capital was developed around the automobile system before the post-war boom of the Trente Glorieuses, the prosperous years in France between 1945 and 1975. This contribution aims to shed light on the changes to Paris ground transport system during the interwar period. The management was Kafkaesque, but this period offers evidence of the first efforts to unify and direct public transport networks.
