Why do the French say we drive on the wrong side of the road when their trains drive on the left?

Question

On holiday in France recently I went to by train and found that all their trains drive on the opposite side to cars.

Answer 1

Because they are french, need I say more.

Answer 2

The French tink everone is wrong who deiate from french opinion. This is why the EC will not work in the long term because France is a law untoitself although it expects and demands others to obet the law.

Long may we drive on the "wrong side"

Answer 3

those frogs dont know what they are talking about

Answer 4

Well, just cuz.

I was in France a couple years ago and I didnt notice anyone driving on the side of the road. Right down the middle swerving to the side only to meet another car.

As for the engineer's side of the trains, the answers about the early British locos is correct.

Answer 5

ARGH! Do we Allies have to go over there and straighten them out AGAIN!!!???

Answer 6

I was in Paris recently and noticed that too.  It's because the early railways were built using British expertise and standard equipment "out of the box".  So even though the French drive on the right, their trains built by us, are on the left.

Answer 7

In controlled track, trains don't have "sides of the road", just track 1 and track 2. Any track, either direction, any time.  Sometimes a platform position requires a train going in a particular direction to be on a particular track, for instance Amtrak trains stopping at Bryan OH must always be on the north side track.  

So maybe the French don't run on the wrong side, maybe the ones you saw just happened to be there that day.

Yes, there is a right side and a wrong side (for automobiles).  That's why it's called the RIGHT SIDE.   Either you drive on the right side of the road, or you don't!

Hey, don't look at me, it's your language :)

Answer 8

It goes back to the middle ages and the way that we did battle with a lance on horse back & the way we carried our lances, this was kept going with the horse & cart on the road.

As for why French trains are driven on the opposit side to cars, well my best answer would be that after the railway was invented here we helped the French build their network so the British way was kept, unlike the car!

Answer 9

Easy. Back when railways first started, the British led the way.  France imported some of their first locomotives from Britain and they were set up for driving on the left track.  See "Crampton locomotives".  So when they started building their own from about 1829 they followed British practice for a while.  By that time the signals etc had been built so they had to stay with locos driven on the left track.  

The French and general Western European habit of driving vehicles on the right of roads goes back to before the Napoleonic wars, and was introduced throughout western Europe during that time.  Sweden and Britain were places that old Boney didn't get to and they continued to drive on the left.  The Swedes changed from left to right in the 1960s.

Answer 10

there w@%k£ers and french

Answer 11

Well trains aren't on roads, they're on tracks. There's really no wrong side for a train.

Answer 12

cause