- Nador Railway stations
-
Coordinates: 35°10′0″N 02°56′0″W / 35.166667°N 2.933333°W
Gare Nador Ville main entrance
The city of Nador in Morocco has two railway-stations: Nador Ville and Nador South. Further on the line there is also a station at [[Bin Anşār[[ and the terminal Bin Anşār Port, which is generally indicated as Nador Port station. As with all railway stations in Morocco, these stations are operated by ONCF, Morocco's national railway operator.
Nador Ville railway station is the main station and serves the single track line through the city. The station was opened on 10 July 2009 by King Mohammed VI, together with the town's other station Nador South and the line to Tawrirt.[1] Within the city limits of Nador, the track runs underground. Between 2006 and the completion of the line in 2009, the major construction works which were carried out in the city caused disruption to traffic along one of the major through-roads of this busy city.
The railway line doesn't terminate in Nador (even when the name of the line is [[Taorirt (Morocco)}Taorirt]]-Nador) but past Nador Ville there are two more stations: Beni Ansar (or Bin Anşār) Ville and Beni Ansar Port. Beni Ansar Port is the terminus of the line and in often called Nador Port as the port in Beni Ansar is the Port of Nador[2].
Contents
Construction
Sign regarding building railway and tunnels for it through NadorThe construction of the 117 kilometer track to Taourirt cost 1.776 million dirham (approximately €180 million). This averages to 15 MDh per kilometer. The line is relatively expensive because it has to run from the 400m-above-sea-level in the Rif mountains to Nador, which is at sea-level.[3] The construction of the underground track and station platforms also required more money then a ground-level track.[4]
Connection to the core network
Sign showing daily departures from Nador VilleThe Nador line connects to the core rail network at Taourirt. At this point the line connects to the major East-West line that runs from Oujda via Fez and Meknes to the capital, Rabat, and the commercial capital, Casablanca. Every day there are 4 trains towards and from Nador. One starts and one terminates in Taorirt - where you can transfer to/from the West-East train Fez-Oujda. One terminates in Fez, one in Casablanca (via Fez and Ranat) and one in Tanger (via Fez).
Timetable Nador trains[5]
Departure
Nador
Taorirt
Fes
Casablanca
Tanger08:43 10:27 14:40 18:45 n/a 12:28 14:12 18:30 22:45 n/a 17:43 (†) - 01:00 - 07:00 18:43 (†) - 01:00 06:15 n/a Departure
Casablanca
Tanger
Fez
TaorirtArrivee
Nador19:45 (†) - 00:15 - 06:00 - 21:35 (†) 02:30 07:45 09:32 06:15 - 10:35 15:20 17:03 13:15 - 17:15 21:30 23:13 -
- Notes: (†): Night-train with sleep-compartments and couchettes.
The journey to Taourirt takes just over an hour, but as the train changes direction there (by moving the locomotive to the other end of the train) the departure from Taorirt is aprox. 2 hours after deparing Nador. Between Nador and taorirt there are several stops such as Selouane, Hassi Berkane and Oulad Babou[6]. Most trains continue to Fez or Casablanca (station Casablanca Voyageurs, one daily train terminates in Taorirt and you have to change to a train from Oujda to continue further to the west like Casa-Voyageurs) which takes approximately 12 hours.[7]Travelers to Nador can arrive at approximately 08:15, 17:00 or 22:15.[7]
References
- ^ King Mohammed VI opens Nador railway, visited 4 August 2009
- ^ Station names from the route-planner on the ONCF Homepage, visited 9 March, 2011
- ^ Height-info obtained from Google Earth mapinfo
- ^ Budget information from the official Government of Morocco portal Maroc.ma, retrieved on 5 August 2009
- ^ ONCF Website Ligne Nador-Casablanca, French, visited 20 June, 2011
- ^ Route info from Skyscraper city (using this image)
- ^ a b Train and travel times according to ONCF Timetable visited on 4 August 2009
External links
Categories: -
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
