Abstract
From the 1870s, suburban public transportation grew in importance in major cities in France. Each municipality decided the mode of its construction and operation through a concession system. Under that system, urban public transportation in major French cities advanced technologically. However, the process of developing urban transportation facilities varied depending on the city. The capital city of Paris, while boasting a modern metro network, continued to use outdated means of ground transportation, such as omnibuses and horse-drawn trams, until 1913. Compared to large French regional cities where the electric tramway had been in common use since the beginning of the century, paradoxically Paris's urban public transportation was in a backward state. After World War I, there were marked differences in major regional cities. For example, Lyon succeeded in downsizing its system; most lines were laid in densely populated areas, which was geographically favorable to management. By contrast, the Marseille transportation network, as a result of constructing a large number of unprofitable lines to remote suburbs, fell into chronic deficits, worse than before World War I. In Marseille, the influence peddling of politicians in their electoral bases, which was associated with the development of universal male suffrage, was particularly evident in the field of urban public transportation service.
