LGV Tangier – Kenitra

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LGV Tangier – Kenitra
LGV Tangier – Kenitra route
Planned TGV route network in Morocco
Route length: 200 km
Gauge : 1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Power system : 25 kV 50 Hz  ~
Top speed: 350 km / h
Dual track : continuous

The Kenitra-Tangier high-speed rail line (short for Ligne à grande vitesse Tangiers Kénitra ) is a railroad - high-speed line in Morocco . It is 200 km long and leads from Tangier to Kenitra . The opening of the route took place on November 15, 2018. Since then, high-speed trains of the ONCF brand Al Boraq have been using the route on the Casablanca – Tangier connection.

Project

This high-speed line is part of a network that is modeled on the French TGV network and is expected to reach a length of 1500 km by 2035. Two main routes are planned: an approximately 900 km long “Atlantic Line” ( Tangier - Rabat - Casablanca - Marrakech - Agadir ) and an approximately 600 km long “Maghreb Line” (Rabat - Meknes - Fès - Oujda ). The Tangier – Kenitra section is the first stage of the Atlantic line.

The purpose of the new line is to relieve the already existing heavily used and winding routes between the economic metropolises Casablanca / Rabat and Tangier. With the relocation of long-distance passenger transport to the high-speed routes, the freed-up capacity on the old Atlantic routes is to be used for freight traffic to the port of Casablanca and the Tanger-Med container terminal . These measures are intended to help increase Morocco's economic growth.

In the long term, the Maghreb line is to be run across the border to Algiers and Tunis . There are also plans for a Gibraltar tunnel under the Strait of Gibraltar , from Tangier to Tarifa in the Spanish region of Andalusia . This means that LGV Tanger-Kenitra can be connected to the European high-speed network. The travel time between the capitals Rabat and Madrid would be four hours.

The line is equipped with ETCS Level 1 and 2 and GSM-R . The contract for this was awarded in spring 2013 for 120 million euros.

Planning and construction

TGV train type RGV2N2 in Tanger-Ville station (November 2018)

In October 2007, the French President Nicolas Sarkozy and the Moroccan King Mohammed VI signed. a first agreement protocol for the construction of a high-speed line based on the TGV model. In February 2010, the final project contract between the Moroccan state and the railway company Office National des Chemins de Fer (ONCF) was signed. In December of the same year, ONCF ordered 14 TGV Duplex trains from Alstom with a value of around 400 million euros .

The groundbreaking ceremony took place on September 29, 2011 in Tangier, at which Sarkozy and Mohammed VI. participated. It was originally assumed that the system would go into operation in December 2015, but this date had to be postponed by two and a half years. At the UIC Congress in Tokyo in July 2015 , ONCF Director Mohammed Smouni blamed difficulties in acquiring land in particular. At this point the project was about 70% complete.

The opening ceremony by King Mohammed VI. and French President Emmanuel Macron took place on November 15, 2018. Both got on the high-speed train at Tanger-Ville station and drove to Rabat. The total costs are said to have amounted to 22.9 billion dirhams (2 billion euros).

The high-speed route is being built for a potential maximum speed of 350 km / h, in normal operation it should be driven 320 km / h. After the opening, the trains will run between Kenitra and Casablanca on the old line, which today can be driven at up to 160 km / h. A third track has been added to the double-lane line since 2012. As soon as this is passable along its entire length, the existing tracks will be replaced so that the maximum speed can be increased to 220 km / h. With this upgraded route , travel time will be reduced by a further 40 minutes in 2020.

Offer and travel times

Since the opening, nine continuous connections between Tangier and Casablanca have been offered in each direction, the first trains leave Tangier or Casablanca around 6 a.m. and reach their destination around 8 a.m. The last trains start their journey around 9 p.m. and arrive at their destination station around 11 p.m.

place Before new construction current 2020
Tangier - - - - - -
Kenitra 3 h 05 min 50 min 40 min
Rabat 3 h 45 min 1 h 20 min 60 min
Casablanca 4 h 45 min 2 h 10 min 1 h 30 min

vehicles

Arrival of a TGV train part by low loader in Tangier (July 2015)

ONCF procured 14 TGV Euroduplex trains from the manufacturer Alstom for the high-speed route . They are based on the 3rd generation TGV duplex trains, are multi-current capable (25 kV and 3kV) and adapted to the Moroccan weather conditions.

The first unit reached Morocco on June 29, 2015, by the end of April 2016 nine more train units had arrived in Tangier to be assembled. The first driving tests began on January 20, 2016 on the existing line between Kénitra and Casablanca, both with the regular speed of 160 km / h and the maximum speed of 200 km / h. The tests on the high-speed line were completed between February 2017 and June 2018.

financing

The costs of LGV Tanger-Kenitra are estimated at around 1.8 billion euros (or 20 billion dirhams ). Of this, the rail infrastructure accounts for 900 million, the equipment for 500 million and the vehicles for 400 million. Various partners are involved in the financing. French and European partners are contributing slightly more than half (920 million euros) (partly in the form of development aid), while the Moroccan state and the Hassan II Foundation together contribute 500 million euros. Various Arab state funds are participating with a total of 380 million euros.

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Alain Hocke: Building Africa's first LGV . In: Railway Gazette International . tape 168 , no. 6 , 2012, ISSN  0373-5346 , p. 35 ff .
  2. ^ Maroc: le premier TGV d'Afrique inauguré par Emmanuel Macron in: Le Parisien of November 15, 2018
  3. ↑ a b Ligne grande vitesse (Tangier – Casablanca). (PDF, 7.5 MB) (No longer available online.) Office national des chemins de fer, archived from the original on March 4, 2016 ; Retrieved July 29, 2015 (French). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.tgvmaroc.ma
  4. ↑ a b Pourqui la grande vitesse au Maroc? (PDF, 650 kB) (No longer available online.) Office national des chemins de fer, archived from the original on March 4, 2016 ; Retrieved July 29, 2015 (French). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.tgvmaroc.ma
  5. ↑ Le TGV marocain. Le Monde , October 8, 2011, accessed July 29, 2015 (French).
  6. ^ Intelligence Market . In: Railway Gazette International . tape 169 , no. 5 , 2013, ISSN  0373-5346 , p. 22 f . (including online ).
  7. ↑ Le Maroc dit oui au TGV, non au Rafale. L'Express , October 23, 2007, accessed on July 29, 2015 (French).
  8. ↑ High speed funding package agreed. Railway Gazette International , February 18, 2010, accessed July 29, 2015 .
  9. ↑ Le Maroc achète 14 rames de TGV. Le Monde , December 10, 2010, accessed July 29, 2015 .
  10. ↑ High-speed train gets its name in: Maghreb-Post, July 14, 2018
  11. ↑ Ceremony launches Tangier - Casablanca high speed project. Railway Gazette International , September 29, 2011, accessed July 29, 2015 .
  12. ↑ Moroccan high-speed line to open in spring 2018. International Railway Journal, July 8, 2015, accessed on July 29, 2015 (English).
  13. ↑ a b Morocco: "Al Boraq" high-speed train Tanger - Casablanca put into operation. In: LOK Report. November 16, 2018, accessed January 5, 2019 .
  14. ^ Infrastructure et travaux du LGV au Maroc. (No longer available online.) Office national des chemins de fer, archived from the original on October 9, 2015 ; accessed on July 29, 2015 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.tgvmaroc.ma
  15. ^ 3 milliards de DH pour one 3ème voie de chemin de fer entre Kénitra et Zénata La vie éco, November 17, 2011, accessed on July 29, 2015 .
  16. ↑ ONCF et Alstom signent un accord pour la fourniture au Maroc de 14 trains DMUs. Alstom, December 10, 2010, accessed January 4, 2019 (French).
  17. ↑ TGV MAROC. Union Maritime La Rochelle, July 22, 2015, accessed January 4, 2019 (French).
  18. ↑ a b Pierre-Olivier Rouaud: TGV du Maroc: en vidéo, les premières images des essais en conditions réelles. In: L'Usine Nouvelle. February 3, 2016, accessed January 4, 2019 (French).