ONCF, the national agency of Moroccan railways, confirmed in October 2003 the awarding to SYSTRA, in partnership with Team Maroc, of the profitability study for a project of high speed line between Casablanca, Marrakech and Agadir.
ONCF, which operates a railway network extending over nearly 2000 km, more than half of which electrified, is implementing a policy of modernisation and of creation of new lines.
Given the context, SYSTRA, which had already completed numerous missions of appraisal of the existing network and of its prospects for evolution (including, in 1977-83, a comprehensive appraisal of a project for the construction of a new line between Marrakech and Agadir, with an extension to Laâyoun), was particularly well positioned to understand today's problems.
The new study is concerned with a priority development project for passenger and goods traffics, in the context of the competition from air and road transport.
The projected improvements on the existing section between Casablanca
and Marrakech (240 km), which has already been partly modernised
for trains running at 140 km/h, include:
doubling the track over 190 km, between Sidi El Aidi and Marrakech,
layout rectifications in order to remove small radius curves.
On the section between Marrakech and Agadir, two variants for the new line layout have been identified:
a direct corridor through the Atlas mountains (222 km), with a travelling time of 73 minutes, involving the construction of viaducts and tunnels,
an Atlantic corridor via Essaouira (292 km), with a travelling time of 95 min.
The survey will involve three phases:
1. Traffic forecasts and economic survey,
2. Estimation of the investments and of operating and maintenance costs,
3. Production of the social-economic and financial statements,
to enable ONCF to appraise the economic and financial feasibility of the project to 2010.
