ABSTRACT
Chapter 3 charts the divergent paths of railway development in London and Paris during the third quarter of the nineteenth century. When the first section of the Metropolitan Railway opened in January 1863 in London, debates in Parliament emphasised the need to conceive of railways as a system of interconnected circles instead of the lines and termini that had been built since the 1830s. Similar debates took place in Paris around this time though no plan was implemented before the opening of the Métropolitain’s first line in 1900. The use of geometric terms such as rings, circuits and circles proliferated throughout the process illustrating new ways of connecting the railways and, more importantly, new ways in which the two cities could use transport technologies for shaping their own growth. Two models emerged in the process: One centrifugal and the other circumventing the centre and connecting the periphery. Through a detailed discussion of these two models, the chapter characterises a ‘public’ that comprised private companies encouraged through competition to provide the best service; transport monopolies granted in the interest of securing accessibility to all; and the actual users, especially those who travelled or might travel between work and home, and for whom the economy of time represented a tangible benefit.
