Marrakech – Head of Government Fatima Ezzahra El Mansouri presented Morocco’s official government program for 2026-2031 before both houses of Parliament on Monday.
The 133-page document places infrastructure at “a central place” in the program, calling it “a fundamental lever to end the isolation of the various regions,” to strengthen the competitiveness of the national economy, and to reinforce links between the kingdom’s economic hubs.
It frames the major railway, road, port, and airport projects as “an integrated framework” that serves integrated territorial development, draws domestic and foreign investment, and keeps pace with “the major international events the kingdom is preparing to host, notably the 2030 World Cup.”
Within that framework, the document treats rail as a strategic pillar of the government’s sustainable mobility policy. It organizes the work in two phases: completing the current investment cycle, then opening a new one.
The first phase covers the 2024-2030 investment program, which the declaration puts at MAD 134 billion ($13.4 billion).
The government plans to accelerate four projects. These are the extension of the high-speed line between Kenitra and Marrakech, regional RER train services in five regions – Casablanca-Settat, Rabat-Sale-Kenitra, Marrakech-Safi, Tanger-Tetouan and the Oriental – the electrification of the Fez-Oujda line, and the completion of the rail link to the Nador West Med port.
The second phase is the new element. The program announces a 2030-2035 investment cycle built around several projects. The first is the launch of works to extend the high-speed line toward Agadir, with a connection of Essaouira to the network.
The program also plans to rehabilitate the Casablanca-Khouribga-Oued Zem line and build a new line between Oued Zem and Beni Mellal via Bejaad, with a branch toward Fquih Ben Salah.
Two further projects complete the list: the doubling and upgrade of the 140-kilometer Benguerir-Safi line, and an increase in the capacity of the Fez-Oujda corridor. The document adds the rehabilitation of existing stations, the construction of new-generation stations, and an expansion of the network.
The Agadir extension already has a legal basis. Decree No. 2.26.605, dated September 1 and published in Official Gazette No. 7541 on September 7, declared the Marrakech-Agadir and Chichaoua-Essaouira high-speed railway projects to be of public utility.
The decree opens the land-acquisition and expropriation procedures for the two lines, rather than confirming that construction has begun.
Transport and Logistics Minister Abdessamad Kayouh had set out the project’s scope before the House of Representatives on May 25. He put the cost of the Marrakech-Agadir link alone at close to MAD 55 billion ($5.5 billion). He described the crossing of the High Atlas as the main technical constraint, with nearly 70% of the planned structures made up of bridges and tunnels.
According to the minister, his department and the National Railways Office (ONCF) were working to bring in international partners to finance and build the project, and no financing agreement has been signed to date.
The wording on Essaouira leaves one open question. The program commits to connecting the city “to this network” without specifying the type of line. The September decree framed both routes as high-speed, for the purposes of a shared expropriation perimeter.
Reporting close to the railways office indicates that the high-speed line toward Agadir will not serve Essaouira directly. The 240-kilometer route will cross the High Atlas via Chichaoua at up to 320 km/h, linking Marrakech and Agadir in about an hour.
Essaouira would instead be served by a separate line from a junction at Chichaoua, designed for trains running up to 200 km/h under the Plan Rail Maroc 2040.
For the current network, work on the Kenitra-Marrakech high-speed line had reached about 30% by May, with service planned for September 2029.
That timeline does not apply to the Marrakech-Agadir link, for which no completion date has been set. The program fixes a 2035 horizon for the new cycle, but it does not detail the financing or a calendar for its individual projects.
