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Africa North
Morocco plans Arab worldÂ’s first high-speed train
2006-09-16
RABAT - Work on the Arab worldÂ’s first high-speed train -- stretching from the Mediterranean to the door of the Sahara desert -- could begin next year, the head of MoroccoÂ’s rail company said. The trains would travel at up to 300 kilometres (186 miles) per hour, slashing times from Tangier in the north via Marrakesh to Agadir in the south, and from Casablanca on the Atlantic to Oujda on the Algerian border.

“Marrakesh to Tangier in two and a half hours -- it’s as if the country’s shrinking,” rail operator ONCF’s managing director Mohamed Rabie Khlie told Reuters in an interview. “A high-speed rail network will put us in the rail industry’s big league.”
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If the plans are approved, the 1,500 kilometres of track may take until 2030 to complete at a cost of around 25 billion dirhams ($2.87 billion), Khlie said. Once financing for the new lines is sealed, engineering work could begin in the second half of 2007, Khlie said.

And Khlie said plans mooted years ago for a tunnel from Europe to Africa across the strait of Gibraltar were still on course, meaning trains may one day travel direct from Madrid to Marrakesh. “A Moroccan-Spanish committee is working very hard on this issue and it’s going very well,” he said. “We feel quite a clear willingness on the Spanish side to push things forward.”
Posted by:Steve White

#12  Morocco is a tourist destination from France and Germany, especially the beaches at Agadir.

They export fruit (oranges, at least), wine, and phosphate for fertilizer.

And that's just from memory.

Sorry, AP. That's a Norfolk and Western Class J 4-8-4 in excursion service. Streamlined like a Southern Pacific GS-4. Both were among the purdiest.
Posted by: Bobby   2006-09-16 18:09  

#11  Yep, build a high speed railway and the jihadis will flock to derail it.

BTW, That pic in the article is the Southern Pacific Coast Daylight, SF to LA. I rode on it as a little kid, one of my first memories, then they went diesel, with the A & B units (black widows).

Well, Morocco, good luck with your plans. If you can make it work, it is because you eliminated terrorism in your country.
Posted by: Alaska Paul   2006-09-16 15:16  

#10  finally, the vision of CSN&Y is realized!
Posted by: Frank G   2006-09-16 14:44  

#9  Who they getting this from, ChiComs ? Where do they get money, oil ? I didn't think they had appreciable oil deposits. Other than piracy and smuggling, how do they generate cash ?
Posted by: SOP35/Rat   2006-09-16 14:16  

#8  Bobby, I wuz wondering how you could pickout an out of focus derailer. Liver and learn.
Posted by: 6   2006-09-16 11:03  

#7  Just imagine that damage thay they will be able to inflict at 186 miles per hour. Derailing is one of the regions most popular pastimes.
Posted by: bigjim-ky   2006-09-16 10:01  

#6  Links fixed
Posted by: Pappy   2006-09-16 09:34  

#5  I worked on a plan to extend Moroccoo's railway from Marrakesh to the port in the disputed (former) Spanish Sahara in 1978. The King reported saw it as a way to tie his country together, ala the USA Transcontinental Railroad.

Turned out to be too expensive, in part, I thought, to the French criteria better suited for France (60 mph minimum, thru the mountains). That's where I had my experience with (what seemed to be) Moderate Muslims. Half the girls wore scarves, and traditional garb, the other half wore jeans.

While waiting with the French geologist to be picked up by our driver, a man came out of a hut and insisted we have lunch with him. I doubt he had much to eat, but he wanted to share it with us. We agreed to some tea, and he was delighted.

Just one incident, but I remember it pretty well.
Posted by: Bobby   2006-09-16 09:26  

#4  All aboard that train!
All aboard that train!
Posted by: 6   2006-09-16 07:49  

#3  #2 linkys no worky
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut   2006-09-16 05:42  

#2  Arabs were once handed a railway. They ran it into the ground:

From Desert

To Desert
Posted by: Snease Shaiting3550   2006-09-16 05:32  

#1  I wonder how well they'll be able to hang onto the outside of the train at 300kph.
Posted by: gorb   2006-09-16 05:31  

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