Nicolas Sarkozy made a quick visit to Morocco where he came to launch the first TGV line in an Arab country. This is an industrial success for France where the high-speed train celebrates its 30 years of operation this year. By the end of 2015, it should connect Tangier to Casablanca via the capital, Rabat, a line of 350 km.
Happy as Nicolas Sarkozy in Morocco under the sun of Tangier. Alongside King Mohammed VI, the French president crowds the red carpet under
the applause of the crowd. Here, far from business and electoral setbacks, the head of state is focused on his job as president. "And sell TGV in Morocco, he says, it's good for the employment of the French."
the applause of the crowd. Here, far from business and electoral setbacks, the head of state is focused on his job as president. "And sell TGV in Morocco, he says, it's good for the employment of the French."
Half a billion euros
"This is the first TGV in an Arab country," he says. "This is employment for the French because for Alstom, it is fourteen trains, almost half a billion euros of orders. This means that in Belfort, La Rochelle and other sites, it is thousands of hours of work for French workers .
In the entourage of the president, the same words, the same elements of language. "The president is zen" , say in heart the ministers who accompany him. "On the plane, he only spoke to us about football and Morocco . " However difficult for the president, even in Morocco, to forget the divisions of his majority while it is Jean-Louis Borloo, his former Minister of Transport, who spread out all over the pictures in the Tangier train station. Jean-Louis Borloo had signed the project for the future TGV four years ago.
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Morocco inaugurated this Thursday its new high-speed line connecting Tangier to Casablanca via the capital Rabat. A large-scale project qualified by the national and international press as the first TGV in Africa.
Called Al Boraq, the Moroccan TGV is the result of a strategic partnership between Morocco and France. It has contributed to the financing of this project, through loans, up to 51% of the overall cost. Postponed on several occasions, resulting in additional costs, the new high-speed line would have cost 23 billion dirhams.
A jewel that jealously monopolized the attention?
Since its announcement, the project has not been unanimous among Moroccans. About fifty associations and activists had formed the "Collective Stop TGV", denouncing a project that would cost an "astronomical sum" for a developing country. And beyond this opposition, the construction of the high-speed line connecting the economic capital of the kingdom to the city of Detroit, spread over 7 years, has not only happy.
Indeed, since the beginning of the works, delays impacting the classic line connecting the two cities have begun to emerge. As the launch approaches, these delays have become commonplace, affecting the entire rail network. Simple delays of 10 to 15 minutes, the gap quickly climbed to generate, sometimes, a longer delay or even the outright removal of some trains using the route connecting Casablanca to Tangier.