MOROCCO IS ACCELERATING! feature - Alstom

10
feature
“I saw steel horses fl ying through the desert… Their passage like
that of time... If one day you meet these horses, say to yourself that
the future has arrived at a gallop.” The advertising message of
the ‘Offi ce national des chemins de fer du Maroc’ (ONCF) rings
like a superb allegory. It clearly indicates the Moroccan State’s
determination to continue the unprecedented modernisation
programme begun nearly a decade ago and to equip the country,
in the next few years, with very high-speed rail services.
Dossier prepared by Catherine Fressoz and Éric Dumoulin
On gaining independence in 1956, Morocco
inherited 1,907 kilometres of railway track built
at the beginning of the twentieth century
(ref. box opposite). This network runs like
a long corridor connecting, from east
to south, Oujda, near the Algerian frontier,
with Marrakech via Fes, Kenitra, Rabat and
Casablanca. Branch lines serve Tangiers
in the north, Safi and El Jadida on the Atlantic
coast and Oued-Zem and Bouarfa inland.
All the country’s major cities and its main
ports are served, with the exception of Nador,
in the north. On the other hand,
beyond Marrakech, there is nothing...