French railway pensions are a key element of workers’ rights in the sector. This article sums up the history of this major social innovation. A benefit that originated in employer largesse during the second half of the 19th century had become a retirement pension by the beginning of the 20th century. As institutions gradually shaped this early type of pension, the railway retirement system was modelled on pre-existing civil service pensions. Ever since the 1950s, the pensions of French railway workers have guaranteed them what amounts to a lifelong wage. In a European context marked by the will to open up the railway sector to market liberalization, French conservatives decided, at the beginning of this century, that the pensions and the special status of railway workers should be relegated to the past. We show that, on the contrary, in the areas of political and socio-economic choices, railway workers’ rights can be considered a model for the social rights of all workers in the future.