Monaco has a train station. Simple, right? Well, borders in Europe are seldom simple…
Huge thank-you to @susannabritton5969 and my grandmother for getting me all the footage! Also shoutout to @TheTimTraveller for inspiring this format.
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Classy Whale – at-least-weekly misadventures with trains and transit!
21 Comments
I did notknowthat Monaco only had less than one railway station!
Makes sense. Everyone is busy driving their Rolls Royces and Lambos
That was fun!
Nice Tim Traveler reference for the European video 👍
Sparkly intros are back!!! 🥳
So Monte Carlo is of course the most famous part of Monaco, but Monaco is more than just Monte Carlo! Administratively, Monaco is divided into different wards. In the 1911 constitution, Monaco was first divided into three municipalities, Monaco-Ville (the old city and seat of government), Monte Carlo, and La Condamine. Their status then became wards in 1917. Seven more wards were added later, Fontvieille (which was land reclamation), Moneghetti, La Colle, Les Révoires (Moneghetti, La Colle, and Les Révoires were formerly parts of La Condamine), Larvotto, La Rousse, and Saint Michel (all three were formerly part of Monte Carlo). However, Saint Michel, La Colle, and Les Révoires were dissolved in 2013.
La Colle and Les Révoires were combined into a new ward called Jardin Exotique, and Saint Michel rejoined Monte Carlo. And when the development of Le Portier is completed in 2025, it will become its own ward. And here's another fun fact about Monaco: Their anthem actually features MEME in it! Of course, it doesn't mean what the Internet thinks it means, but rather it's found in the lyric "Se ride au ventu, u meme pavayùn" which means "The same flag has flown in the wind" in Monégasque.
Yup, it's absolutely crazy that Vatican City has a whole station within its territory! You can actually take a train from there seasonally as since 2015, during Spring and Summer on weekends, they offer service to Castel Gandolfo which is the Pope's vacation retreat. Though on the way back, the train just goes to Roma San Pietro. The railway is 300 meters or 980 feet long, making it of course the shortest national railway system in the world. The Vatican has a railway because it was guaranteed in the Lateran Treaty in 1929. The construction of the viaduct leading to Vatican City from Roma San Pietro was paid for by the Italian government!
The first locomotive entered the Vatican in March 1932, and the station was opened officially in October 1934. However, the first Pope to use it was Pope John XXIII in 1962. The railway station was actually the only thing bombed in Vatican City during WWII as in March 1944, the Vatican discovered that the Germans actually parked a munitions train there!
I was at this station recently. The design gives me Washington DC metro vibes.
Okay we absolutely need a Caleb and Susanna in-person collab!
Inn be love that line so pretty the station is cool
Monte Carlo is a neighbor hood which happens to have the casino
3:31 the tunnel and station was moved because of real estate value. Monaco doesn’t have taxes unless your French or american
I passed through it a few months ago while taking the TER from Ventimiglia to Villefranche-sur-Mer! Monaco-Monte Carlo is definitely quite an interesting station, and so is Ventimiglia, which is electrified at 1.5kV for compatibility with both French and Italian trains (the latter at half power, and the newest ones don't work with it, which is a big problem there at the moment)
"A Starbex", an Ibex, but it makes coffee
Hey, wait… Which one's the Grandmother?
BTW, Kudos. This video was above and beyond good!
Caleb, buddy. The Schengen area is no weirder than US states having open borders between one another.
The European country with less train stations than Idaho.
Fun and informative: love it.
What a cool guide 😀
I've been there. The platforms are long so make sure you're standing in the right spot where your train is going to stop. If you want to get to the central area (shopping) your best bet is to exit on the west. The east exit is kind of a steep walk to get up to the entrance. It's not an oddity, so I don't get your point. Obviously the station tracks are beyond the edge Monaco, but that's just a quirk of its borders. Monaco is small just as lots of things are small. Schengen or no Schengen, there won't be border controls for such a tiny principality wedged on three sides by France. Pointless and impractical. You can walk in and out of Monaco without even realizing it. The station is nice and suits the purpose very well.
Monaco train station looks like soviet style station also the station have a lot of entrances