Rabat – Casablanca’s mayor, Abdelaziz El Omari, announced on Wednesday, October 2, the selection of the Spanish company Alsa to manage urban buses in Casablanca. The city council chose the Spanish company after a call for bids was announced earlier this year.
The Spanish company will replace M’dina Bus, the company that has managed buses in Casablanca since 2004. The city’s contract with M’dina Bus will expire at the end of October.
Alsa is expected to acquire 350 new buses, and double the size of its fleet, to 700 buses, by 2020.
Casablanca’s city council and Alsa are still discussing ways to manage the transition period between the end of M’dina Bus contract and Alsa’s contract coming into effect.
The city council terminated their contract with M’dina Bus after the company failed to respect their contractual requirements. Casablanca inhabitants also expressed their dissatisfaction with the services provided by the company.
M’dina Bus fleet was composed of old, poorly maintained buses. In January 2019, a bus belonging to the company burst into flames in the middle of a crowded intersection. Luckily, no human casualties were recorded.
Alsa is already operating in Marrakech, Khouribga, Tangier, Agadir, and most recently the region of Rabat-Temara-Sale. The Spanish multinational started operating in Morocco in 1999, in Marrakech.
