Morocco’s ONCF’s call for new trains and industrial development

Morocco’s National Office of Railways (ONCF) is continuing to implement its development plan and has launched a call for competition for the acquisition of new trains.

In line with the insightful vision of His Majesty King Mohammed VI, this transformative project aims to strengthen the national rail as the preferred choice for sustainable and inclusive mobility.

Five years after the commencement of operations of the first Moroccan and African high-speed line, Al Boraq continues to confirm that its success is only the prelude to new adventures, aiming to better connect territories and offer citizens innovative, more efficient, faster, and smarter mobility options.

ONCF is thus issuing a call for competition to acquire 168 trains (150 trains for Intercity Services, Rapid Shuttle Trains, and Mass Transit Trains, and 18 high-speed trains for the extensions of high-speed lines).

This acquisition aims on the one hand to support the strong growth in passenger traffic, replace part of the rolling stock fleet which has reached the end of its life and on the other hand to ensure connections on the future high-speed line extension to Marrakech as well as the local service, Mass Transit type in the regions of Casablanca and Rabat.

Through this ambitious investment, amounting to around 16 billion Dirhams, ONCF aims, beyond the act of purchasing trains, to provide a real opportunity to launch a Moroccan Railway Industrial Ecosystem. An ecosystem that will have numerous economic and social impacts in terms of job creation, strengthening the national industrial fabric, with a local integration rate that will ultimately transform the Kingdom into a highly competitive platform at the continental and global levels.

As a reminder, ONCF had launched an international Expression of Interest (EOI) in September 2022 regarding this acquisition with the aim of identifying potential actors interested in the project, stimulating competition by inviting several parties to express their interest, leading to better offers or stronger partnerships, and gathering information on the skills, resources, and ideas of interested parties to better design the project.

Following this EOI, ONCF received ten expressions of interest from the majority of international rolling stock manufacturers.

ONCF is advancing in this transformative project by launching the Call for Competition, which is structured around three components:

1. Purchase of trains, with the delivery schedule spread over 4 years between 2027 and 2030.
2. Partnership for maintenance: ONCF and the selected manufacturer will establish a joint structure responsible for ensuring, on behalf of ONCF, routine and industrial maintenance services for the trains.
3. Industrial development: The selected manufacturer will have to undertake an industrial development project through the construction of an industrial manufacturing unit and the development of a railway ecosystem of suppliers and subcontractors with an export ambition, similar to what has been achieved in the automotive and aerospace industries.

Given the importance and complexity of this project, ONCF will operate, within the framework of this Call for Competition, the competitive dialogue procedure, which will take place in several stages, in accordance with the provisions provided for by the regulations in force.

If the main objective of this significant project is to offer citizens the best sustainable mobility solutions, in line with the rapid development that our country is experiencing, it goes without saying that it also contributes to better preparing for the global sports event that our country, jointly with Spain and Portugal, will host in 2030.