Rabie Khlie Director General of ONCF

Rail travel in Morocco will rival the most advanced European networks as transportation authorities earmark billions of dollars towards expanding the national train system over the next two decades. High-speed trains linking the port city of Tangier to historic Casablanca are expected by 2013, bringing the nearly six-hour trip down to a journey of just over two hours. A second stretch connecting Casablanca to Marrakech is due by 2015, reducing the three-hour train ride to one hour 20 minutes. Rabie Khlie, the Director General of Morocco’s National Rail Office, says improvements to the network will boost trade opportunities with Europe and other regions. Transportation authorities are actively courting American and European investors to aid in the expansion process.

Moroccan officials have opened up the transport sectors, to private investment in air, sea, rail and road transport activities, thanks to reforms initiated in 2005. Mr. Khlie believes rail system expansion will allow Morocco to take better advantage of Free Trade Agreements with the United States and European Union.

“The conversion of the ONCF into a limited company actually allows for intelligent financial arrangements, including public-private partnerships, which was not possible under the old institutional framework of the office,” Mr. Khlie says. Talk of high-speed trains began in 2002. Plans call for a total of 1,500 kilometers of high-speed rail line by 2030. Costs for the inaugural line are estimated at more than $2.7 billion, while the budget is still in the works for the second line, according to the National Rail Office. Expansion of the rail network will have a direct impact on Tangiers, whose port is a key shipping destination between Spain and Morocco on the Strait of Gibraltar. “Each mode of transport will further consolidate Morocco’s trade and infrastructure as well as its role as a key player in the region,” Mr. Khlie says.

The system is on a sound financial footing as well. Revenue “has almost doubled in less than five years,” Mr. Khlie says, adding that the rail system was operating at a loss in 1995, broke even by 2000 and now has turnover of about $415 million. Passenger volume has also increased significantly. In 2002, the railways counted 14 million passengers, compared to more than 26 million in 2007.