One of the best ways to get to Fez, after flying into Casablanca, is by train. The almost four hour journey is always a delight. Watching the Moroccan countryside going by is a great introduction to the Moroccan landscape.
Now comes the news that, when work on the line linking Rabat and Fez is finished, the trip's duration will be reduced significantly, from just under four hours to two hours and a quarter. Twenty-four new 400 seat trains have been ordered and the first of them will start working on the Casablanca-Fez axis, from the end of the year
The first train, made by the Italian group Ansaldobreda, will arrive in the port of Casablanca on July 9. The remaining trains will be delivered at the pace of two trains per month until July 2007.
On Monday, the Minister of Equipment and Transport, Karim Ghellab (pictured above), accompanied by the director general of the National Office for Railroads (ONCF) and a team of technicians of the Office, visited to the workshop where these trains are manufactured in Pistoia (Florence region).
The aim of the visit was to check the conformity of these trains to the Moroccan request and to give the green light for their delivery.
The minister stressed that the arrival of these trains will increase the capacity of ONCF by approximately 40%.
This “will allow it to pursue the development of rail transport in Morocco, which has seen an average increase of 11% per annum, during the last four years,” which represents more than 21 million passengers a year, he said.
The trains will cost almost MAD 2 billion.
Tags: Morocco Fes, Maghreb news
No comments:
Post a Comment