On 29 September, the first stone of the high speed line which will connect Tangier, Rabat and Casablanca in Morocco was laid in Tangier in the presence of His Majesty King Mohammed VI of Morocco, Nicolas Sarkozy, President of France, His Royal Highness Prince Megrin Ben Abdulaziz Al Saud representing the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Mr Karim Ghellab, Minister for Equipment and Transport in Morocco, Mr Thierry Mariani, French Transport Minister, Mr Mohammed Rabie Khlie, Director General of the Moroccan Railways ONCF and Chairman of the Africa Region of UIC, Mr Guillaume Pepy, Chief Executive of SNCF and Jean-Pierre Loubinoux, UIC Director General.
This symbolic act signals the launch of construction work for the 200-kilometre high speed line connecting the main economic hubs of the country, Tangier and Casablanca, and running through Rabat, the administrative capital of the kingdom. Once the line has been fully completed, journey times between Tangier and Casablanca should be reduced from 5h45 at present to 2h10 in 2015. The high speed services will boost traffic volumes, set to increase to 6 million passengers once the line enters into service.
The launch of construction work for a Moroccan high speed line represents the starting point for the development of high speed rail on the African continent, building on the success of high speed projects in Japan and elsewhere in Asia, Europe, Russia, the United States and more recently the Middle East, with a high speed line in Turkey.
Jean-Pierre Loubinoux, Director General of UIC, welcomed this event “which is hugely important as the connection will not only be the first high speed line on the African continent, but also constitute the first link in a network developing southwards. High speed rail in conjunction with a well-developed conventional network will provide Morocco with an economic, business and social boost. The Moroccan Railways are already one of our association’s most active members, taking part in a number of projects in the fields of infrastructure, safety and in particular security, with the UIC worldwide Security Platform chaired by Mr Moha Khaddour of ONCF.”
The construction of the first high speed line in Morocco is of particular significance to Jean Pierre Loubinoux, formerly Chief Executive of SNCF-International, as at the time he and Mr Mohammed Rabie Khlie had been in charge of preparing agreements between the Moroccan and French states. The agreements were finally signed in March 2009.
This first high speed link in the Maghreb paves the way for the development of a passenger transport system offering the best in terms of speed, safety, service quality and green credentials.
