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Rabat- Morocco’s high speed train (LGV) will become operational by the end of 2018, according to the National Office of Railways (ONCF).
The final operational tests before the commercial launch of the LGV began in June.
Following a series of tests carried out since February 2017, LGV is expected to start operating during one of the final three months of 2018.
ONCF previously affirmed the tests occurred over several kilometers of the new line with successive increases in speed, maintaining that the line is suitable for circulation at 320 kilometers per hour.
In May, the test train reached a speed of 357 kilometers per hour between Tangier and Kenitra, reported ONCF.
This upcoming fall, the LGV—which is the first of its kind in Africa—will link Tangier to Kenitra with a travel time of only 1.5 hours. LGV will also connect Tangier to Casablanca in 2 hours and 10 minutes, replacing the current trip’s five hour minimum travel time.
In October 2017, the French Development Agency (AFD) granted a loan of EUR 80 million to fund the last segment of the Tangier-Casablanca high-speed train project.
This followed the French agency’s initial grant of EUR 220 million in 2011 for the establishment of the project, which was originally scheduled to be finished in 2015, but was postponed to 2017 because of delays caused by infrastructure projects.
