MOROCCO IS ACCELERATING! feature - Alstom

passengers and 36 million tons of goods
each year. Throughout our corporate project
Rihane 50 (Challenge 50), we have set
ambitious objectives for 2015: to carry
50 million passengers and 50 million tons
of freight. To accomplish this we will have
to meet fi ve major challenges: succeed
in implementing very high-speed rail
transportation, improve the competitiveness
of our logistics, reinforce our position
in the urban transport sector, develop rail’s
position as a mode of sustainable mobility
and modernise our infrastructure to adapt
to international standards.
These are all key challenges for building
the Morocco of the future.
You have recently been elected President
of the African Assembly of the International
Union of Railways. What do you plan to do
to promote rail in sub-Saharan Africa?
The continent’s rail network has 80,000 km
of track. This is an extremely low density,
about 2.7 km/1,000 km 2 . In addition,
about twenty African countries do not have
any rail network at all. Africa will therefore
have to accelerate the modernisation
and development of its infrastructures
to meet the growing mobility needs of
its populations and the growing expectations
of economic operators who have ever
increasing demands, in terms of service,
safety and competitiveness.
This is the context in which we are working,
on the basis of a concrete short-term
plan of action, focusing on increasing
awareness of the importance of developing
rail throughout our continent, organising
training sessions to improve the competences
of human resources and sharing network
know-how.
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