The contract with the French group Alstom, which concerns the purchase of 18 high-speed trains, was first mentioned during the visit of French President Emmanuel Macron to Rabat at the end of October.
The country is preparing for the 2030 Football World Cup, which it is co-organizing with Spain and Portugal. Morocco announced, Wednesday February 26, the purchase of 168 trains, including 18 TGVs, for around 2.8 billion euros from the French companies Alstom, Spanish CAF and South Korean Hyundai Rotem. The Moroccan National Railway Office (ONCF) did not give the amount of each contract, but the most emblematic concerns the purchase of 18 high-speed trains from the French group Alstom, first mentioned during the visit of French President Emmanuel Macron to Rabat at the end of October. “The train in question is of the very latest generation” and it “has the best performance on the market in terms of total operating cost”, declared the CEO of Alstom, Henri Poupart-Lafarge, who was on the trip. A 400-kilometer line between Kenitra and Marrakech The second line of the Moroccan high-speed train will therefore extend over 400 kilometers between Kenitra (northwest) and Marrakech (center). Alstom had already completed the first line of this type in Africa, linking Tangier to Casablanca (north-west), in service since 2018. The second contract was awarded to the Spanish company Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles (CAF) for “the supply of 30 modern intercity trains”, with an option to acquire 10 additional trains, according to a CAF press release. A third contract for the acquisition of 110 transport trains between several cities and their suburbs was awarded to the South Korean company Hyundai Rotem.
