Rabat — A sudden breakdown halted the high-speed TGV train service connecting Casablanca and Tangier today. The disruption occurred near Kenitra station due to a reported technical malfunction.
According to a statement from the National Railway Office (ONCF), the breakdown happened around 10:00 a.m. when fiber optic cables were cut near Kenitra station during track maintenance work.
This caused significant disruption to traffic on the high-speed line (TGV).
The incident led to a temporary stoppage of Al-Boraq trains and created disturbances for conventional train services operating on the Kenitra-Casablanca route, as well as those traveling further northward to Tangier.
To address the problem, ONCF stated that they sent technical teams to the site to “restore normal operations as quickly as possible.” The railway authority says that they implemented alternative solutions and support services to ensure passengers could continue their journeys under the best possible conditions.
However, for many of the passengers, the damage to their travel plans was already done.
Susanne Millar, a traveler from California who was visiting her family living in Morocco, was gravely affected by the disruption. She, along with numerous other passengers on the train, ended up missing their flights taking off from Tangier’s Ibn Battuta airport. “While traveling on the TGV from Rabat to Tangier today, at around 10 minutes to 10 a.m., the train suddenly came to a stop,” she said in an interview with Morocco World News (MWN).
She continued that they were “initially, they informed us over the announcement that there was an issue with the train depot ahead,” but soon realized the issue was going to cause a severe delay.
The train halted several times before stopping “for long periods,” she added, lamenting that after that passengers were left to their own devices and no further announcements were made.
Millar then expressed frustration that some of the tourists, like herself, knew that they would miss their flights, despite allowing plenty of time to arrive to the airport.
Read also: King Mohammed VI Launches Construction of Kenitra-Marrakech High-Speed Rail Project
Travelers on the train told Millar that “this has never happened to them before on any high-speed train,” explaining that they consider “this route as reliable, but that today is an exception.”
After the train arrived in Tangier station, the chaos was far from over as angry passengers frantically rushed the train ticket desk in order to get refunds and proof of delay for their travel insurance. “As we entered the customer service agency, we stood in a line, we were pointed to another line, we stood in a third line, and this is where fights broke out with shouting between the customers and the service agents as well as between the customers themselves,” Millar described.
“It was mayhem.” She recounted that security was called to break up customer arguments, and that people were yelling in anger that the delay affected their ability to get back to their jobs in nearby cities.
She said that the whole experience of trying to get the refund papers took over an hour. “Some passengers were receiving refunds and others were not. It was totally unclear why.”
The tensions were so high that Millar said one of the customer service agents was even crying in distress from the abuse from angry passengers. “It was clear that the agency had no clear policy on how to deal with this massive delay,” she concluded.
ONCF has faced numerous incidents of backlash for delays on their regular rail lines, but it is less precedented on the TGV high-speed routes, which are generally considered to be more reliable. This reality, coupled with the fact that TVG tickets have a higher pricemark added to customer frustration.
Morocco has been investing one developing its rail transport infrastructure, and has recently launched construction of the Kenitra-Marrakech high-speed rail. However, the company needs to be actively focusing on the effectiveness of its already-existing infrastructure in order to be ready to welcome the world for the 2025 AFCON and 2030 FIFA World Cup.
