Tangier–Casablanca High-Speed Rail

Tangier–Casablanca High-Speed Rail (Al Boraq)

Morocco’s first high-speed rail line was inaugurated in November 2018. It connects Casablanca and Tangier via Rabat, reducing the journey from 4h45 to just 2h10. We revisit this milestone in African rail history.

Tangier–Casablanca High-Speed Rail a Singular Partnership

The Casablanca-Rabat-Tangier link is Phase 1 of a projected 1,500-km high-speed network by 2030. To meet the challenge, Morocco called in SNCF for its expertise in designing, building, operating and maintaining what would become the Al Boraq line.

Tangier–Casablanca High-Speed Rail Working Hand in Hand with SNCF

Starting in 2009, SNCF and Morocco’s ONCF formed teams for each major task, pairing local experts with high-speed rail know-how. The partners also created a training centre: Institut de Formation Ferroviaire (IFF).

Tangier–Casablanca High-Speed Rail Viaducts and more Bridges

The line crosses several flood plains and required 286 engineering works, including 13 viaducts. The most prominent of these is El Hachef, a 3.5km structure south of Tangier that cost €100 million.

STSTRA Designed and Builds Al Boraq in 7 Years

SYSTRA contributed to design and build Africa’s first HSL, linking Tangiers with Casablanca in Morocco. With an operating speed of 320km/h, this train named ‘Al Boraq’ redraws the kingdom’s transport map.

A reference to the winged horse of oriental tradition, Al Boraq is the name of the high speed line linking the cities of Tangiers, Kenitra, Rabat and Casablanca, some of Morocco’s main economic hubs. Journey times have been significantly reduced: Casablanca – Tangiers goes from 4h45 to 2h10, Tangiers – Rabat from 3h40 to 1h20, and Tangiers – Kenitra from 3h15 to just 45 minutes. The ONCF, SYSTRA’s client and the project owner, predicts a doubling in annual ridership, with six million passengers by 2021.

The Tangiers – Casablanca HSL was designed and built in only seven years with the same requirements and standards as those of our HSL projects in France, and it uses the ERTMS (European Rail Traffic Management System) Level 2 signalling standards, It is also a revolution in terms of costs, with a price per kilometre halved compared with European projects. It opens the door to the creation of a high speed rail network in the country in order to serve the majority of cities of more than 400,000 inhabitants, thereby allowing around 1,500km of HSL to emerge by 2050.

Al Boraq What Comes Next

Al Boraq New Projects on the Horizon:

• Extending high-speed service from Kenitra to Rabat
• Building a second high-speed line from Marrakech to Agadir and then on to Casablanca
• Launching a commuter rail system for Casablanca and its suburbs
• Building and renovating maintenance facilities