Balbigny (French pronunciation: [balbiɲi]) is a commune in the Loire department in central France.

During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, before the Loire was channelled, Balbigny was a village of boatmen, known for flat bottomed boats known as Rambertes which were used to transport the coal mined at Saint-Étienne.

All this changed in August 1832 with the arrival of the third oldest railway line in France which connected Andrézieux-Bouthéon with Roanne, passing Balbigny en route.

An extension of the rail network in 1913 saw Balbigny connected with Saint-Germain-Laval and Régny.

The coal was therefore transported by rail, but the railway also gave farmers in the district access to a wider range of markets for their produce.