Moroccan National Rail Operator Completes Feasibility Study Into New High-Speed Line
Moroccan national railway operator ONCF has completed a feasibility study into a new high-speed railway to link Rabat, the country’s capital with the eastern city of Fez.
The study covered the first phase of the project which involves building a 150km line from the capital to Meknes.
The rail operator now plans to conduct a social and environmental impact study into the project, Morocco World News reports.
The so-called Maghreb Line will create the newest link in Morocco’s ambitious high-speed rail project which will see TGV trains running between the country’s major cities.
The line is expected to reach Oujda on the Morocco-Algeria border in the long term.
The first line, dubbed Al Boraq — a reference to a heavenly creature that is said to have carried Islamic prophets — runs between Tangier and Casablanca.
The 323km line, inaugurated by King Mohammed VI in 2018, has cut travel times between the two cities from nearly five to just over two hours.
The Al Boraq currently operates as two sections — a 186km-long dedicated high-speed line between Tangier and Kenitra where trains travel at speeds of up to 320km/h, and a 160km section between Kenitra and Casablanca on which trains travel at 160km/h.
Services are operated by 12 Alstom Euroduplex bilevel trainsets, each able to carry 533 passengers.
The high-speed line is electrified at 25kV while the Kenitra-Casablanca section remains at 3kV.
The US$2.4 billion project, jointly funded by France (51%), Morocco (28%) and the United Arab Emirates (21%), has offered a much-needed boost to the Morocco’s passenger rail offerings.
Passenger journeys on the Al Boraq line jumped from 2.4m in 2021 compared to 1.3m the previous year, according to local reports.
The next phase involves a proposed line from Casablanca to Marrakech and the Atlantic port city of Agadir with costs estimated at $7 billion.
Once complete, the proposed high-speed rail network will link 43 cities, 14 ports and 12 airports, boosting rail’s share of the public transport market from 51% to 87%, ONCF said.
Tenders have yet to be issued for the new line.
