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High-speed rail in developing countries and potential inequalities of use: the case of Morocco

a lower number of women than men with a secondary‐level education (7 women for every 10
men among the population aged 25 and over), and only 11.7% of members of parliament are
women. In addition, the percentage of companies headed by women is extremely low (less
than 5%), the lowest in Africa after Sudan. Lastly, the unemployment rate for women is 29.6%,
compared with 12.4% for men.

Accordingly, the types of inequalities that HSR services could reinforce, in terms of gender,
are likely to be inequalities of professional mobility: the population likely to use HSR will
probably be more male than female.

But high‐speed rail services can also be used for tourism‐related mobility.

Morocco’s “Prospective Maroc 2030” long‐term perspectives initiative (HCP, 2007) and “Vision
2020” tourism development strategy aim to continue to make tourism one of the motors of
the economic, social and cultural development of Morocco (SMIT, 2011). Indeed, Morocco
recorded 9.3 million tourist arrivals at its border posts in 2013, rising to 10.4 million in 2014
and 10.2 million in 2015. From this point of view, HSR services could be used by foreign
tourists for certain journeys within Morocco, in particular between Tangier and Marrakesh .
30
However, given the existing competition with airlines from the main countries of origin of
tourists visiting Morocco, this use seems unlikely.

But HSR services could also be used for domestic tourism, which has long been ignored, even if
certain authors, such as Mohamed Berriane, stressed how important this was as early as 1989.
“With an average departure rate of over 30%, Moroccan urban dwellers account for between
18% and 20% of overnight hotel stays (depending on the year), with some also choosing to
lodge with local residents” (Berriane, 1989, p. 10). The Moroccan administration wishes to
develop this type of tourism with the aim of tripling the number of domestic travellers. In
2015, the domestic tourist market has continued to grow, as has been the case since 2010.
Overnight stays in hotels grew by 11% to represent 32% of the total, a larger percentage than
those of the French market (20%). It is thus not just the wealthiest Moroccan categories, but
also those within the middle classes who are able to benefit from tourism activities, that are
liable to travel by high‐speed train.
In such cases, the organization of connections and intermodality in order to access or exit
from stations when travelling to or from the seaside destinations of M’Diq, Tetouan, Fnideq
and Cabo Negro on the Mediterranean coast, or Larache on the Atlantic coast near Tangier,
31
or the resorts of Mehdia or Salé close to Kenitra will therefore be of central importance.
Indeed, for tourism‐related trips, links between HSR stations and final destinations must be
designed so that the time saved by high‐speed rail is not lost in reaching the station or the
final destination.

5. Conclusion

In this article, we have highlighted the fact that there are many high‐speed rail projects under
way in developing countries. We subsequently showed how these countries’ socio‐economic
contexts, marked by significant inequalities, could influence the use of HSR. We put forward
the hypothesis that the innovations in terms of service improvement represented by high‐
speed rail – which are considerable in Morocco – could actually reinforce these inequalities
insofar as infrastructure and services are differentiated in spatial terms; however, we also
pointed out that these inequalities could be spatial, economic, social and use‐related. In

30 High‐speed rail is used by tourist foreigners in China, for example (Chen and Haynes, 2014).
31 Where land reserves have been made for a planned high‐speed rail station (cf. above).

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