Alstom to fit ERTMS Level 1 on Morocco's Kenitra–Settat main line

Lire en français : Alstom équipe Kénitra–Settat en ERTMS niveau 1 pour 150 M€

Alstom's €150m share of a €260m signalling contract will bring ERTMS Level 1 to Morocco's conventional main line between Kenitra and Settat. The award, announced in September 2025, covers the corridor that the new Kenitra–Marrakech high-speed line will join at several points.

Alstom leads a consortium with Ineo Rail and Ineolum, according to the company's statement of 25 September 2025, carried that day by Morocco World News and other Moroccan outlets. The scope is the design, supply and commissioning of a complete system. Alstom provides its Onvia Control signalling, while its two partners handle telecoms, cabling, power supply and installation. Neither the client nor a commissioning date appears in the published text, and Médias24 reported that Alstom asked journalists shortly after release not to run the statement, saying an updated version would follow.

Why Level 1 on the old line matters for the new one

The contract does not cover the high-speed line itself. Its budget and progress are set out in our report on the MAD 53bn Kenitra–Marrakech line. What links the two projects is the way trains will move between them. ONCF's tender for signalling and telecoms on the new line, estimated at about MAD 3.2bn, lists junctions with the conventional network at Sidi Ichou, on both sides of Rabat-Agdal, at Zenata, at Nouaceur and between Bouskoura and Berrechid, Le360 reported in March 2024. The same document leaves out the Rabat-Agdal section, which already runs under ERTMS Level 1.

Under ETCS Level 1, balises fixed to the track pass movement authorities to the train at set points, and the on-board computer brakes the train if the driver exceeds the permitted speed curve. Lineside signals stay in place. Level 2 sends authorities continuously over GSM-R radio and can do without them. With ERTMS on both networks, a high-speed set leaving the new line at one of these junctions keeps the same train protection logic instead of switching to a national system.

Morocco has mixed the two levels before. Its first high-speed line, Tangier–Kenitra, was signalled for ETCS Levels 1 and 2 under a €120m contract won in 2013 by Ansaldo STS with Cofely Ineo, Railway Gazette reported at the time.

Settat, where the two projects meet

Settat is also a high-speed worksite. In January 2025, the governor of Settat Province, Ibrahim Abouzeid, presented two civil works sections covering about 63.5 km in the province, worth MAD 2.362bn and MAD 1.529bn, each due within 33 months, Hespress English reported. Officials said 996 land parcels, about 550 hectares, had been expropriated for the route.

Across the whole line, Transport Minister Abdessamad Kayouh told the House of Representatives on 25 May 2026 that work was about 30% complete, with delivery planned for September 2029, according to Le Matin. Finances News Hebdo reported in April that signalling systems were being prepared for deployment on schedule.

The next step for Kenitra–Settat is a published rollout timetable from Alstom or ONCF. For the high-speed line, the milestone to watch is the award of its own signalling contract, which will confirm the ETCS level chosen for running at 350 km/h.

Sources: Morocco World News (25/09/2025); Médias24 (25/09/2025); Le360 (27/03/2024); Railway Gazette (04/04/2013); Hespress English (10/01/2025); Le Matin (25/05/2026); Finances News Hebdo (24/04/2026).

Photo: ONCF Alstom Prima electric locomotive E-1463 at Kénitra, November 2024. Phil Richards, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

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