Rail transport in Morocco

Morocco
Operation
National railway	ONCF
Statistics
Ridership	38 million per year (2012–13)
Freight	36 million tons per year (2012–13)
Track gauge
Main	1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in) standard gauge
Electrification
3000 V DC	Main network
25 kV 50 Hz	High-speed line (under construction)
Map The Moroccan railway network (freight and passenger)

Rail transport in Morocco is operated by the ONCF.

Main connections

The main network for passenger-transport consists of a North-South link from Tangier via Rabat and Casablanca to Marrakech and this N/S link interconnects with the East-West connection linking Oujda in the East via Fes to Rabat. Major destinations currently not (yet) linked by rail are often served by Supratours, a bus company operated by the ONCF.^[1]

The most important long-distance train services are:

Train navette rapide (TNR) at Rabat-Ville station

Night trains

The ONCF operates special night-trains on the long-distance main-line links. The following routes offer night-trains:

• Marrakech-Tangier vv
• Casablanca-Oujda vv
• Casablanca-Nador vv
• Tangier-Nador vv

These long-distance trains operate with non-motorized passenger cars that have individual compartments. Second class compartments have two couches opposite each other, each couch offering 4 places. In first-class cars each compartment offers 2 x 3 places and foldable arm-rests divides the places. In 1st class each passenger has a reserved assigned seat.

Each compartment has its own door to the aisle and curtains can be drawn to keep the compartment dark. In the night-trains, passengers in a 2nd class compartment tend to draw the curtains, switch off the lights and close the sliding door, hoping that no passengers will enter their compartment so the existing passengers have more space. In first class each seat is assigned thus there the system doesn't work.

When trains are not busy you can be lucky and have a full couch available per passenger so you can lie down.

Besides these 'normal' compartments (that are also used on day-time trains, the special night-trains also offer sleeper-cars with bedrooms/compartments or couchettes. For a bed or couchette you pay a fixed price, regardless of the route or distance traveled. Beds and couchettes have to be reserved when you buy your ticket.^[3]

Marrakech-Tangier vv

Every day there is one train on the route Marrakech-Tangier in each direction. On this route the standard 6 or 8 person compartments are available as well as the 4 person couchette-compartments.

timetable: Departure Marrakech at 21:00 with stops at (amongst others) Casablanca Voyageurs (0:45), Rabat-Ville (1:57), Kentira (2:37) and Sidi-Kacem (3:33). Arriving in Tangier at 7:25 hrs.
Departure Tangier at 21:05, Sidi-Kacem (1:30), Kentira (2:35), Rabat (3:15), Casablanca (4:30) and arriving in Marrakech at 08:05 hrs.^[3]

Casablanca-Oujda vv

The time-tables for Oujda trains are:^[3]
Departure Oudja: 21:00, Taorirt (22:43), Fez (3:00), Kentira (4:30), Rabat (6:15) and arriving at Casablanca-Voyageurs: 07:15 hrs
Departure Casablanca-Voyageurs: 21:15, Rabat (22:23), Kentira (22:51), Fez (1:30), Taorirt (5:03), terminating Oujda: 07:00 hrs.
This train is a so-called Hotel train

Casablanca-Nador vv

Moving engine from one end of train to other end to change direction
Nador-Fes daytrain, Taorirt station

Dept. Nador: 19:43 hrs, Fez (1:00) (change for Tangier) arriving in Casablanca at 06:15 hrs.
Dept. Casablanca: 19:45, Fez (0:15) arriving in Nador at 06:00.

Nador is not start/terminus: trains run from/to nearby Bin Anşār or Nador Port The night-train on this route only offers 2 person sleeping compartments with full beds. No couchettes available.^[4]
As the train doesn't go to Taourirt there is no need to change driving-direction and thus no need to move the engine. The day trains all do stop at Taourirt and as the link to Nador is actually before the station of Taourirt (coming from Fes) the direction of travel has to change, including moving the locomotive from one end to the other

Tangier-Nador vv

Leaving Nador: 17:43 hrs, Fes (23:00) and terminating in Tangier at 07:00
start: Tangier 21:35, Fes (2:30) arrival in Nador at 09:32^[4] start/terminus: trains run from/to Bin Anşār or Nador Port

Hotel-train Oujda-Casablanca

The 21:00 Oujda-Casablanca and 21:15 Casablanca-Oujda train is a so-called Hotel-Train: these trains ONLY offer reserved sleeping places and no 1st and 2nd class seats. This special Hotel Train service started on 29 June 2010^[3] and featured in the James Bond film Spectre.

Urban

Light rail

• Casablanca tramway
• Rabat-Salé tramway
• fr:Tramway de Marrakech (proposed, in French)
• Tangier Tramway (2 lines project, 25 km, 8.4 billion MAD)^[5]

Heavy rail

• Train Navette Rapide : Rapid transit rail (since 1984) from Rabat to Casablanca extended to Kenitra and Settat (200 km) ;
• Al Bidaoui : Casablanca overground rail (since 2002) ;
• Le Bouregreg : Rabat overground rail (since 2012) ;
• Casablanca Airport rail link (30 km, since 1993) ;
• Casablanca - El Jadida Rapid transit line (100 km, since 2002) ;
• Casablanca RER line (RER 63 km mass transit rail including 9 km underground rail, planned for 2020)^[6]

Projects

Moroccan high speed rail service program (by 2035).

The national railway-operator ONCF is working on several projects. The largest project is the development of a high-speed railway from Tangier via Rabat and Casablanca to Marrakech. Also a (passenger) rail connection between Tangier and Tangier MED, the port on the Mediterranean near Tangier, will give passengers arriving by ferry a connection to the main lines. A train will operate every 2 hours between the port and Tangier city.^[7] A freight-line from the Renault factory at Tangier MED is already operational^[8]

History

Railway links to adjacent countries

• Algeria, route has been closed since the 1990s. - tracks use same gauge 1,435 mm (4 ft 8 ¹⁄₂ in)
• Gibraltar (UK), no connection; a ferry service connects Gibraltar to the Tanger-Med port and railway station
• Spain: Since 2003 there are studies being done about the creation of a direct link with Spain via a railway tunnel under the Strait of Gibraltar. This tunnel will connect the Moroccan rail-infrastructure with the European via Spain.^[9] In Tangier the tunnel would connect to the currently-being-built High Speed Line Tangier-Marrakech.
• Western Sahara: Via the proposed network-extension from Marrakech via Guelmim to El Aaiún would connect Morocco to the Western Sahara. Currently ONCF daughter-company Supratours operate bus-routes from Marrakech to Western-Sahara such as Tan-Tan or Laâyoune.^[1] Morocco claims Western Sahara as part of Morocco and thus as national routes.
  • Mauritania: A 5-kilometre (3.1 mi) section of the Mauritania Railway; which (since the closure of the Choum Tunnel), cuts across the extreme south-eastern corner of the Western Sahara.

See also

• Economy of Morocco
• History of rail transport in Morocco
• Transport in Morocco
• For more information on the Taourirt-Nador branch line, see Nador Railway stations

References

Notes

Further reading

External links

Media related to Rail transport in Morocco at Wikimedia Commons

Economy of Morocco
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