Casablanca Tramway

The Casablanca Tramway Project is a public transportation project and one of the biggest infrastructuralⁱ projects in Morocco¹. The project is a primary element of the Casablanca Urban Development Programmer I which aims to facilitate the integration of Casablanca’s suburbs, including Dar Bouazza and Lahraouiyne, with the central urban area (Casablanca)². As such, The Casablanca Tramway project comes to connect all these areas and seeks to address the strong growth in daily travels³, enhance the urban environment by reducing greenhouse gas emissions and create a more sustainable and accessible city⁴. The whole program, including the tramway project, will improve the quality of life in Casablanca while also fostering its economic potential⁵.

The Casablanca tramway is a low-floor tram system. It is the second tramway to be built in Morocco after the Rabat–Salé Tramway⁶. The current Tramway network is longer than the first tramway, with more stations, and comprises two active lines, T1 and T2, with 70 stations and 47 km of tracks⁷.

The project consists of three phases. The first two phases, which include the tramway Lines T1 and T2, are implemented while the remaining lines require implementation. The components of phases and their timeline are as follows:

• Phase 1: The first line of the Casablanca Tramway (T1) was made available to the public in December 2012⁸ where more than 350 million passengers from residents and visitors have used the tramway network⁹. The T1 line features a Y-shaped layout and stretches over 23.5 Kilometers¹⁰ that links the southwestern and eastern suburbs of Casablanca to the city center, with a total of 37 stations along its path¹¹.
• Phase 2: The T2 line project started in 2016 and successfully finished in January 2019. This initiative encompassed both the construction of the T2 line and the extension of the existing T1 line. The T2 serves key areas including Ain Diab, Casablanca Finance City. The new line is expected to add 170,000 extra passengers to the network¹². The T2 line stretches over 22.5 Kilometers¹³ and runs between Anoual and Ain Sebaa and has 33 stations¹⁴.
• Phase 3: This phase encompasses the third and fourth lines. The planned T3 line is set to feature 20 stations, among which are Abdelkader Essahraoui Boulevards, Mohammed VI, Victory Square and Casa Port Station¹⁵. The total length of this line will be 14 kilometers¹⁶  and will serve commuter with a network that includes 43 stations¹⁷. The T4 line will link the Sbata and Lissasfa districts through the Aïn Chock and the Facultés¹⁸. T3 and T4 will be developed concurrently following a shared timeline. The investment budget required for this endeavor is estimated at 7 billion Moroccan Dirhams. The implementation of these lines is expected to start in 2024¹⁹.

The Casablanca Tramway project is initiated by Casa Transport, the public transit authority in Casablanca, in collaboration with RATP (Paris Transit Authority) in 2009. The consortium is responsible for the operation and maintenance of the tramway²⁰. This governance model has been implemented by numerous municipalities in Morocco as a means to develop the essential expertise required for such contracting authorities²¹. In addition, Casa Tram awarded the construction management contract for the tramway to a consortium comprising Systra, a French company, and CID Engineering & Development Consultants from Morocco²². This consortium was responsible for managing aspects related to the tendering process, project design, and construction supervision²³. The Moroccan National Government provided $135.7 million in funding for the implemented part of the Casablanca tramway project. The remainder of the necessary funds was secured through allocations from municipal budgets and loans²⁴. AFD was asked to finance both the second and first railway lines. They provided a 30 million Euro loan and a 500,000 Euro grant for the second line, which followed their financing of the first line with a 23 million Euro loan and a 1.3 million Euro grant in 2012²⁵.