Morocco-Spain Underwater Rail Tunnel Project Advances, Promising 5-Hour Casablanca-Madrid Link

In accordance with the established program and based on the studies already carried out by the SNED and its Spanish counterpart, the SECEGSA, the planned surveys and explorations are underway to select the appropriate technology for the construction of the tunnel, SNED sources told SNRT News, indicating that the project should eventually allow a rail link (high-speed line) between Casablanca and Madrid in five hours and twenty minutes.

The SNED and the SECEGSA had conducted technical, socio-economic and environmental studies to assess the economic viability of the project. In this context, geotechnical tests (drillings) were carried out in Bolonia and Tarifa in Spain and near Malabata, in the Tangier area in Morocco, revealing that this tunnel under the strait should measure at least 14 kilometers at a depth of 900 m. The most favorable point for this construction is located between Punta Paloma on the Spanish coast and Ras Malabata on the Moroccan coast. On this terrain, the tunnel could be built over a distance of 28 km and at a maximum depth of 300 m.

These studies have made it possible to understand the difficulties related to the realization of the project from a geological, oceanographic, seismic and meteorological point of view, as the Strait of Gibraltar presents opposing depths and complex marine, atmospheric and geological environments, explains the SNED. Morocco and Spain decided to reactivate the project in April 2022, during the visit to Rabat of the President of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez, marking the beginning of a new era in relations between the two countries, after more than a year of diplomatic crisis.