Having spent roughly a decade planning for high-speed rail service, Morocco’s plans for the project have gathered increasing steam in recent months following the signing of five key technical and training agreements,
Global Arab Network reports according to OBG.
Morocco has been working with its French partners since 2003 to establish the high-speed train service, or train à grande vitesse (TGV), which will surpass South Africa’s regional Gautrain as the fastest rail link on the continent.
In early April, Morocco’s National Railway Office (Office National des Chemins de Fer, ONCF) signed two conventions with France’s National Railway Company (Société Nationale des Chemins de Fer, SNCF), who in recent years has emerged as a key proponent of the rail project. The agreements were signed during the first state visit of French president François Hollande.
One of the agreements establishes a protocol for setting up an ONCF-SNCF joint venture that will deal with ongoing maintenance on Morocco’s TGV lines while also allowing local authorities and technicians to benefit from the experience of their French counterparts. The second convention establishes another protocol that paves the way for the creation of a Railway Training Institute (Institut de Formation Ferroviaire, IFF). The institute will play a key part in transferring knowledge and developing a qualified local workforce for future TGV projects.
During the visit, the president of the ONCF, Mohamed Rabie Khlie, signed three additional conventions with French companies Ansaldo STS France, Colas Rail and Cegelec Mobility, covering the provision of equipment for the TGV line currently under construction, including signals, overhead cables, telecommunications and electrical equipment.
The high-speed rail link will be used as a supplement to the country’s current rail network, rather than as a replacement. Morocco already benefits from an extensive rail network covering 4000 km, but both passenger and freight traffic have grown steadily in recent years. Passenger traffic increased by 8.8% year-on-year (y-o-y) to reach 37m in 2012, according to press reports. The rise comes on the back of 9.7% growth in passenger volume the previous year and an acceleration of the 5-7% annual expansion rate witnessed between 2008 and 2010.
Freight traffic is also on the rise and should continue expanding due to activity at the country’s key ports. Commerce at the Tanger-Med port, supported by an uptick in industrial activity in the surrounding area, helped to push up freight traffic to 37m tonnes in 2012, which was on a par with 2011’s performance despite a dip in economic activity last year. With a more positive economic outlook and a new logistics platform set to open near the port of Casablanca, freight activity has the potential to climb significantly in 2013.
With shipping activity on the rise, the first line earmarked for construction in the high-speed rail link is a 200-km stretch between Casablanca and Tangier, via the capital of Rabat. Once complete, the new line will cut travel time between Casablanca and Tangier by more than half. The TGV is also expected to create 1500 direct and 800 indirect jobs once it begins operating.
Work on the first segment of the line, which will link Tangier to the city of Kénitra just north of Rabat, officially got under way in September 2011. In early 2013, work was begun to prepare the terrain for constructing two rail segments, building two viaducts and establishing a workshop at Tangier-Moghogha dedicated to train maintenance. Civil engineering work for the entire line is slated to be completed by February 2014 and the installation of the fixed stock by 2014 year-end.
The 14 TGV trains are scheduled to be delivered in 2015 for a December launch of commercial operations. The French firm Alstom won the bid to provide the initial TGV trains at a cost of €400m, while a team of SNCF specialists has been commissioned to provide technical support for the project.
The Moroccan state has made a commitment to directly provide Dh5.8bn (€0.5bn) of the project’s total anticipated cost of Dh20bn (€1.8bn). Of the remainder, Dh13.36bn (€1.2bn) is expected to be financed through loans and Dh840m (€75.43m) through donations from foreign partners. While expensive for a country that ran a deficit of 7.6% in 2012, the project is nonetheless very competitively priced. South Africa’s Gautrain, which covers short distances between the cities of Pretoria and Johannesburg, racked up a price tag of roughly $3bn when it was completed. A planned project linking California’s major urban areas by high-speed rail has been estimated at more than $40bn.
Foreign and privately-funded transport projects will support the development of local industry, while the move to set up a joint venture for TGV maintenance and establish a training institute will be a key driver in the Moroccan authorities’ bid to create a qualified local workforce with know-how for future ventures. This will become increasingly important over time and help to galvanise the development of local industry, given Morocco’s plans to extend the TGV network across 1500 km – and may benefit again once neighbouring countries begin to consider high speed railways of their own.
