Morocco Advances Plans for High-Speed Rail Extension to Marrakech

After the inauguration in 2018 of its first high-speed line (HSR), the first in the African continent, Morocco is working to further develop and modernize its rail network. Detailed studies are underway for the extension to Marrakech of the Tangier-Casablanca HSR, over a distance of 390 kilometers, says Rabie Khlie, the Managing Director of the National Railway Office (ONCF), specifying that the institutional and financial structuring of the project is also being finalized.

In accordance with the High Directives of His Majesty King Mohammed VI on the need to extend the rail network to the South, the ONCF is working on the realization of the necessary studies for an HSR dedicated to the transport of passengers and goods from Marrakech to Agadir, over a distance of 239 kilometers, said the ONCF boss, during his intervention at the opening of the 11th edition of the World Congress of the International Union of Railways (UIC).

"The deployment of the high-speed line has constituted a qualitative leap that has contributed to improving the competitiveness and constant attractiveness of using the train in the daily movements of citizens, thus constituting a benchmark model for improving public services. This encourages us to continue, with determination, the ambition of deploying, by 2030, the second stage of this master plan, to extend our high-speed network to Agadir, which embodies the centrality of modern Morocco," said Mohamed Abdeljalil, the Minister of Transport and Logistics.

And to continue: "This stage, which requires the mobilization of nearly 10 billion euros, will result in a denser coverage of the Atlantic Axis by the high-speed network, bringing it to more than 800 km. In addition to the intrinsic effects of this system, such development is likely to reposition the railway, the low-carbon mode par excellence, as the backbone of sustainable mobility within our country, while benefiting from the capacities released for a regional proximity rail network".