diff --git a/news/13501.bugfix.rst b/news/13501.bugfix.rst
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..cb06bbb90d1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/news/13501.bugfix.rst
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Make conversion of file URLs more consistent across Python versions.
diff --git a/src/pip/_internal/models/link.py b/src/pip/_internal/models/link.py
index 2e2c0f836ac..f1bacd7bca1 100644
--- a/src/pip/_internal/models/link.py
+++ b/src/pip/_internal/models/link.py
@@ -121,43 +121,47 @@ def _clean_url_path_part(part: str) -> str:
     return urllib.parse.quote(urllib.parse.unquote(part))
 
 
-def _clean_file_url_path(part: str) -> str:
+def _clean_file_url(url: str) -> str:
     """
-    Clean the first part of a URL path that corresponds to a local
+    Clean a URL that corresponds to a local
     filesystem path (i.e. the first part after splitting on "@" characters).
     """
+    # Replace "@" characters to protect them from percent-encoding.
+    at_symbol_token = "---PIP_AT_SYMBOL---"
+    assert at_symbol_token not in url
+    url = url.replace("@", at_symbol_token)
+    parts = urllib.parse.urlsplit(url)
+
     # We unquote prior to quoting to make sure nothing is double quoted.
     # Also, on Windows the path part might contain a drive letter which
     # should not be quoted. On Linux where drive letters do not
-    # exist, the colon should be quoted. We rely on urllib.request
-    # to do the right thing here.
-    ret = urllib.request.pathname2url(urllib.request.url2pathname(part))
-    if ret.startswith("///"):
-        # Remove any URL authority section, leaving only the URL path.
-        ret = ret.removeprefix("//")
-    return ret
+    # exist, the colon should be quoted.
+    tidy_url = path_to_url(url_to_path(url), normalize_path=False)
+    tidy_parts = urllib.parse.urlsplit(tidy_url)
+
+    # Restore the original scheme, query and fragment components.
+    url = urllib.parse.urlunsplit(tidy_parts[:3] + parts[3:])
+    url = url.replace(tidy_parts.scheme, parts.scheme, 1)
+
+    # Restore "@" characters that were replaced earlier.
+    return url.replace(at_symbol_token, "@")
 
 
 # percent-encoded:                   /
 _reserved_chars_re = re.compile("(@|%2F)", re.IGNORECASE)
 
 
-def _clean_url_path(path: str, is_local_path: bool) -> str:
+def _clean_url_path(path: str) -> str:
     """
     Clean the path portion of a URL.
     """
-    if is_local_path:
-        clean_func = _clean_file_url_path
-    else:
-        clean_func = _clean_url_path_part
-
     # Split on the reserved characters prior to cleaning so that
     # revision strings in VCS URLs are properly preserved.
     parts = _reserved_chars_re.split(path)
 
     cleaned_parts = []
     for to_clean, reserved in pairwise(itertools.chain(parts, [""])):
-        cleaned_parts.append(clean_func(to_clean))
+        cleaned_parts.append(_clean_url_path_part(to_clean))
         # Normalize %xx escapes (e.g. %2f -> %2F)
         cleaned_parts.append(reserved.upper())
 
@@ -174,13 +178,10 @@ def _ensure_quoted_url(url: str) -> str:
     # `scheme://netloc/path?query#fragment`.
     result = urllib.parse.urlsplit(url)
     # If the netloc is empty, then the URL refers to a local filesystem path.
-    is_local_path = not result.netloc
-    path = _clean_url_path(result.path, is_local_path=is_local_path)
-    # Temporarily replace scheme with file to ensure the URL generated by
-    # urlunsplit() contains an empty netloc (file://) as per RFC 1738.
-    ret = urllib.parse.urlunsplit(result._replace(scheme="file", path=path))
-    ret = result.scheme + ret[4:]  # Restore original scheme.
-    return ret
+    if not result.netloc:
+        return _clean_file_url(url)
+    path = _clean_url_path(result.path)
+    return urllib.parse.urlunsplit(result._replace(path=path))
 
 
 def _absolute_link_url(base_url: str, url: str) -> str:
diff --git a/src/pip/_internal/utils/urls.py b/src/pip/_internal/utils/urls.py
index e951a5e4e47..e8f3cb25b5b 100644
--- a/src/pip/_internal/utils/urls.py
+++ b/src/pip/_internal/utils/urls.py
@@ -1,55 +1,70 @@
 import os
-import string
+import sys
 import urllib.parse
-import urllib.request
 
 from .compat import WINDOWS
 
 
-def path_to_url(path: str) -> str:
+def path_to_url(path: str, normalize_path: bool = True) -> str:
     """
-    Convert a path to a file: URL.  The path will be made absolute and have
-    quoted path parts.
+    Convert a path to a file: URL with quoted path parts. The path will be
+    normalized and made absolute if *normalize_path* is true (the default.)
     """
-    path = os.path.normpath(os.path.abspath(path))
-    url = urllib.parse.urljoin("file://", urllib.request.pathname2url(path))
-    return url
+    if normalize_path:
+        path = os.path.abspath(path)
+    if WINDOWS:
+        path = path.replace("\\", "/")
+
+    drive, tail = os.path.splitdrive(path)
+    if drive:
+        if drive[:4] == "//?/":
+            drive = drive[4:]
+            if drive[:4].upper() == "UNC/":
+                drive = "//" + drive[4:]
+        if drive[1:] == ":":
+            drive = "///" + drive
+    elif tail.startswith("/"):
+        tail = "//" + tail
+
+    encoding = sys.getfilesystemencoding()
+    errors = sys.getfilesystemencodeerrors()
+    drive = urllib.parse.quote(drive, "/:", encoding, errors)
+    tail = urllib.parse.quote(tail, "/", encoding, errors)
+    return "file:" + drive + tail
 
 
 def url_to_path(url: str) -> str:
     """
     Convert a file: URL to a path.
     """
-    assert url.startswith(
-        "file:"
+    scheme, netloc, path = urllib.parse.urlsplit(url)[:3]
+    assert scheme == "file" or scheme.endswith(
+        "+file"
     ), f"You can only turn file: urls into filenames (not {url!r})"
 
-    _, netloc, path, _, _ = urllib.parse.urlsplit(url)
+    if WINDOWS:
+        # e.g. file://c:/foo
+        if netloc[1:2] == ":":
+            path = netloc + path
+
+        # e.g. file://server/share/foo
+        elif netloc and netloc != "localhost":
+            path = "//" + netloc + path
+
+        # e.g. file://///server/share/foo
+        elif path[:3] == "///":
+            path = path[1:]
+
+        # e.g. file:///c:/foo
+        elif path[:1] == "/" and path[2:3] == ":":
+            path = path[1:]
 
-    if not netloc or netloc == "localhost":
-        # According to RFC 8089, same as empty authority.
-        netloc = ""
-    elif WINDOWS:
-        # If we have a UNC path, prepend UNC share notation.
-        netloc = "\\\\" + netloc
-    else:
+        path = path.replace("/", "\\")
+    elif netloc and netloc != "localhost":
         raise ValueError(
             f"non-local file URIs are not supported on this platform: {url!r}"
         )
 
-    path = urllib.request.url2pathname(netloc + path)
-
-    # On Windows, urlsplit parses the path as something like "/C:/Users/foo".
-    # This creates issues for path-related functions like io.open(), so we try
-    # to detect and strip the leading slash.
-    if (
-        WINDOWS
-        and not netloc  # Not UNC.
-        and len(path) >= 3
-        and path[0] == "/"  # Leading slash to strip.
-        and path[1] in string.ascii_letters  # Drive letter.
-        and path[2:4] in (":", ":/")  # Colon + end of string, or colon + absolute path.
-    ):
-        path = path[1:]
-
-    return path
+    encoding = sys.getfilesystemencoding()
+    errors = sys.getfilesystemencodeerrors()
+    return urllib.parse.unquote(path, encoding, errors)
diff --git a/tests/lib/__init__.py b/tests/lib/__init__.py
index 78fe3604480..01a5955572c 100644
--- a/tests/lib/__init__.py
+++ b/tests/lib/__init__.py
@@ -16,7 +16,6 @@
 from io import BytesIO, StringIO
 from textwrap import dedent
 from typing import Any, AnyStr, Callable, Literal, Protocol, Union, cast
-from urllib.request import pathname2url
 from zipfile import ZipFile
 
 import pytest
@@ -1364,19 +1363,3 @@ def __call__(
 
 
 CertFactory = Callable[[], str]
-
-# -------------------------------------------------------------------------
-# Accommodations for Windows path and URL changes in recent Python releases
-# -------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-# Trailing slashes are now preserved on Windows, matching POSIX behaviour.
-# BPO: https://github.com/python/cpython/issues/126212
-does_pathname2url_preserve_trailing_slash = pathname2url("C:\\foo\\").endswith("/")
-skip_needs_new_pathname2url_trailing_slash_behavior_win = pytest.mark.skipif(
-    sys.platform != "win32" or not does_pathname2url_preserve_trailing_slash,
-    reason="testing windows (pathname2url) behavior for newer CPython",
-)
-skip_needs_old_pathname2url_trailing_slash_behavior_win = pytest.mark.skipif(
-    sys.platform != "win32" or does_pathname2url_preserve_trailing_slash,
-    reason="testing windows (pathname2url) behavior for older CPython",
-)
diff --git a/tests/unit/test_collector.py b/tests/unit/test_collector.py
index fa688f8e42f..318e6ef8a81 100644
--- a/tests/unit/test_collector.py
+++ b/tests/unit/test_collector.py
@@ -33,17 +33,13 @@
     Link,
     LinkHash,
     MetadataFile,
+    _clean_file_url,
     _clean_url_path,
     _ensure_quoted_url,
 )
 from pip._internal.network.session import PipSession
 
-from tests.lib import (
-    TestData,
-    make_test_link_collector,
-    skip_needs_new_pathname2url_trailing_slash_behavior_win,
-    skip_needs_old_pathname2url_trailing_slash_behavior_win,
-)
+from tests.lib import TestData, make_test_link_collector
 
 ACCEPT = ", ".join(
     [
@@ -296,31 +292,30 @@ def test_get_simple_response_dont_log_clear_text_password(
         ("a %2f b", "a%20%2F%20b"),
     ],
 )
-@pytest.mark.parametrize("is_local_path", [True, False])
-def test_clean_url_path(path: str, expected: str, is_local_path: bool) -> None:
-    assert _clean_url_path(path, is_local_path=is_local_path) == expected
+def test_clean_url_path(path: str, expected: str) -> None:
+    assert _clean_url_path(path) == expected
 
 
 @pytest.mark.parametrize(
-    "path, expected",
+    "url, expected",
     [
         # Test a VCS path with a Windows drive letter and revision.
         pytest.param(
-            "/T:/with space/repo.git@1.0",
-            "/T:/with%20space/repo.git@1.0",
+            "file:/T:/with space/repo.git@1.0",
+            "file:///T:/with%20space/repo.git@1.0",
             marks=pytest.mark.skipif("sys.platform != 'win32'"),
         ),
         # Test a VCS path with a Windows drive letter and revision,
         # running on non-windows platform.
         pytest.param(
-            "/T:/with space/repo.git@1.0",
-            "/T%3A/with%20space/repo.git@1.0",
+            "file:/T:/with space/repo.git@1.0",
+            "file:///T%3A/with%20space/repo.git@1.0",
             marks=pytest.mark.skipif("sys.platform == 'win32'"),
         ),
     ],
 )
-def test_clean_url_path_with_local_path(path: str, expected: str) -> None:
-    actual = _clean_url_path(path, is_local_path=True)
+def test_clean_file_url(url: str, expected: str) -> None:
+    actual = _clean_file_url(url)
     assert actual == expected
 
 
@@ -387,16 +382,11 @@ def test_clean_url_path_with_local_path(path: str, expected: str) -> None:
         ),
         # URL with Windows drive letter. The `:` after the drive
         # letter should not be quoted. The trailing `/` should be
-        # removed.
-        pytest.param(
-            "file:///T:/path/with spaces/",
-            "file:///T:/path/with%20spaces",
-            marks=skip_needs_old_pathname2url_trailing_slash_behavior_win,
-        ),
+        # retained.
         pytest.param(
             "file:///T:/path/with spaces/",
             "file:///T:/path/with%20spaces/",
-            marks=skip_needs_new_pathname2url_trailing_slash_behavior_win,
+            marks=pytest.mark.skipif("sys.platform != 'win32'"),
         ),
         # URL with Windows drive letter, running on non-windows
         # platform. The `:` after the drive should be quoted.