A brief description of the financial and socio-economic effects, project critics and future plans
Expensive transport infrastructure projects such as the Moroccan HS line (i.e., Al boraq) should come with a number of impacts both financially and socio-economically as well as critics.
Finance
Based on initial estimates between 2007 and 2015, the cost of the project was expected to be 1,8 billion euros (EUR). The total cost has ended up being 15 % higher, i.e., around 2–2,1 billion EUR or a 20–22,9 billion Moroccan dirhams (MAD). This increase was partly due to, e.g., higher cost of acquiring the land properties.
The project was partly funded by the Moroccan State (25 %). However, major funds came…
How did “Al boraq” came to life?
Al Boraq is the name given to the first trains that run on the newly built high-speed (HS) line in Morocco. The new line covers around 194 km between Tangier and Kenitra allowing trains to run with a maximum speed of 320 km/h. The commercial operations on the line were inaugurated in November 2018.
Morocco has been planning to build its first high-speed railway line, also called LGV or Ligne Grande Vitesse, as early as 2003 with first feasibility studies. One of the goals of these early studies is to find where the first line should be built. This was…
The first appearances of rail transport in Morocco was led by the French and Spanish colonial powers.
One of the earliest lines dates back to the Hispano or Spanish-Moroccan War. In 1859, a short line was quickly built to help transport troops and military material during the war. The line was around 10 km linking the coast from Río Martín (today’s Martil) to the main battlefield in Tetouan.
After winning the war, the line was dismantled in 1862 as it was only temporarily built for military purpose.
Not until 1887 that a short line was built in Agdal garden inside…
An overview of the rolling stock, services and maintenance.
As mentioned before the first inaugural trip of Al boraq was in November 2018 marking the beginning of the operations on the line. Commercial operations started effectively in December 2018.
Trains (rolling stock)
In order to provide the best train services, ONCF have initially ordered 18 trainsets from the French train manufacturer Alstom. The order was reduced later to 14 and then finally settled up to 12 trainsets.
The rolling stock is a new generation of the TGV Duplex (double-decker), also called Euroduplex which is used by SNCF in the French high-speed network. …
An overview of the line, stations and other structures
The main infrastructure of the high-speed line is made up of the newly built section between Tangier and Kenitra. Trains continue until Casablanca on an existing conventional line which is planned to be upgraded.
Line
The newly built double-track line between Tangier and Kenitra is around 193 km along Morocco’s west coast to the Atlantic ocean. It required more than 5,000 workers, 360 of which are engineers and experts working full time.
Moreover, an average of 4 metric tons of ballast per meter was required before laying the 800 km long rails which amounts into a total of 1.6 million tons…
The pilgrimage site or Moussem called Sidi Ahmed Ou Moussa is named after the Muslim saint and spiritual leader Ahmed Ou Moussa (d. 1563). He is considered as a descendant of the prophet of Islam (Muhammad), and led a remarkable mystical life in Tazerwalt, a small Berber town in the Anti-Atlas Mountains in Morocco.
Locally called “Hajj of the poor”, the pilgrimage of Sidi Ahmed Ou Moussa is one of the most known and frequented religious gatherings in Southern Morocco. The pilgrimage site is located in Tazerwalt which is a geographically strategic as it is between the desert and the…
