Marrakech’s Transport Revolution: Six High-Performance Bus Lines to Transform City Mobility

To award to an operator or a group of economic operators the contract for the delegated management of the public urban and suburban bus and BRT (Bus Rapid Transit) transport service within the perimeter of the Marrakech Transport territorial authorities group. This is the objective of this major contract, which is in line with the urban and suburban transport restructuring program in several cities of the kingdom. The future bus network of Greater Marrakech will be an integrated network, combining urban and suburban lines, designed to operate in a coherent and coordinated manner, as a single entity, according to Médias24.

It will be structured around six high-performance lines, with a high frequency of service, a large transport capacity, a high travel speed and a distinct commercial image from the rest of the network lines. These lines are: Massira-Bab Ghmat, Massira-University Campus, Douar Berrada-Hay al Firdaous, M’Hamid-Dry Port, Bab Ghmat-Bus Station and Tamansourt-Marrakech. In addition to these six lines, 13 basic lines are also planned. They will be arranged along the axes where demand is high. The new transport network of Greater Marrakech will also include urban and suburban feeder lines. Currently, the network consists of 67 lines with a total length of 1,342.7 kilometers. At present, Greater Marrakech has 242 urban and intercity buses in service, a fleet whose condition is regularly criticized by several elected officials.

The new delegatee must meet several technical capacity criteria set by the Ministry of the Interior. It must have experience or the cumulative maximum of two experiences, of at least three consecutive years, completed within the last five years or ongoing. A demonstrated capacity in the operation of a transport network or a public transport line on a dedicated right-of-way is required. As for the financial capacity criteria, the candidate must have achieved an average annual turnover over the last three closed financial years of at least 300 million dirhams or its equivalent in foreign currency. It must also provide any element to assess its economic and financial capacities with regard to the required criteria.