The useful railway map for a holiday is not always the one in a World Cup investment announcement. Morocco is expanding its network, but a visitor booking a trip today needs to distinguish an operating train from a line under construction.
Start with the service, not the promise. ONCF’s current Al Boraq destination page describes a Casablanca-Tangier service calling at Casa Voyageurs, Rabat Agdal and Kenitra. It describes journeys beyond that corridor as connections, including conventional mainline trains towards Marrakech and Fez.
Al Boraq is a corridor, not the whole network
For an international traveler, that distinction prevents a common planning error: assuming that every long-distance rail journey in Morocco is a high-speed trip. Al Boraq is one service within a wider system. ONCF’s booking platform also covers Al Atlas, regional trains and complementary coach journeys.
If your itinerary runs from Tangier through Rabat to Casablanca, Al Boraq belongs in the comparison. If it continues to Marrakech, check the actual onward train and connection. For Fez and other inland destinations, read the full itinerary rather than treating a familiar brand name as a guarantee of a direct high-speed service.
The Marrakech extension is real construction, not a ticket
ONCF’s first-half 2026 financial communication, filed with Morocco’s capital-market regulator, describes progress on the Kenitra-Marrakech high-speed project and the wider investment programme towards 2030. It records works under way, not a newly opened passenger service.
That is the practical dividing line. A planned journey time belongs in a description of the future network. It should not be used to decide whether a connection to a flight or an evening booking is possible today. Construction progress also does not settle the exact timetable that will eventually be sold.
Build the journey from the station names
Use the official ONCF Voyages booking service to search your precise date and station pair. Casa Voyageurs and Rabat Agdal are station names worth recognising from the operator’s route description; a city name alone is not enough to establish where your particular train stops.
Check whether the result contains a change, a coach segment or a different train product. Read the departure and arrival dates again before paying, especially for an itinerary assembled from several parts. Keep enough space between independent bookings to absorb a missed connection; the right margin depends on the consequences, not a universal number.
What this guide deliberately does not promise
There is no fixed fare or blanket journey time here. Those depend on the service, date, availability and conditions shown when you book. Nor is a future stadium link evidence that a traveler can use that station now.
Morocco’s rail expansion is a strong reason to follow the country towards 2030. For a trip in 2026, the better habit is simpler: plan against the train being sold, and treat the construction map as a preview.
Reported and written from the linked published sources. Featured photograph: Al Boraq at Tanger Ville, November 2018. Photo: NicholasNCE; colour and shadow adjustment by DavidArthur, via Wikimedia Commons. Image and display crops licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Archive photograph, not a view of future infrastructure.
For the investment behind the future network, our separate analysis explains Morocco’s three-fleet train procurement programme, including the difference between programme scope, contract options and usable capacity.