High speed train

Morocco’s plan to construct a high-speed rail network is drawing mixed reviews, with some legislators and ordinary citizens saying the money is needed to meet other goals.

The project will cut travel times between Tangier and Casablanca from more than five hours to just over two. By 2016, some 8 million passengers per year are expected to use the new line, which is the first step in a master plan aimed at building over 1,500km of new tracks by 2035.

The government is convinced of the need for the project. “Faced with the rapid growth of rail transport, we closely studied the most suitable technology for developing the sector,” Transport Minister Karim Ghellab said on Monday (February 1st) in Tangier.

“The study concluded that there would be higher socio-economic productivity for the high-speed technology in comparison with classical railways,” Ghellab said at a signing ceremony of the contract for the planned high-speed rail project. “In spite of the former’s reasonable additional cost, it’s characterised by economic features that greatly exceed the advantages of the latter.”

“Work on the high-speed train will kick off next June, while the exploitation of the project will begin in December 2015,” the minister added at the ceremony, which was presided over by King Mohammed VI.

The contract signed on Monday between the state and the National Railway Office is for a 20 billion-dirham, 2010-2015 project under a wider government programme for social and economic development. The project is to be funded by the state, the Hassan II Fund for Social and Economic Development, and foreign loans. A total of 33 billion dirhams will be invested in developing rail transport as a whole.