{"id":5650,"date":"2026-07-28T10:09:49","date_gmt":"2026-07-28T10:09:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=5650"},"modified":"2026-07-28T10:09:49","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T10:09:49","slug":"mathews-how-california-lost-to-morocco-in-high-speed-rail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=5650","title":{"rendered":"Mathews: How California lost to Morocco in high-speed rail"},"content":{"rendered":"
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I am sitting in a plush green train seat. Outside, the landscape is a familiar tapestry of yellowing grasses, eucalyptus, oaks, and waves from a west-facing seacoast. If I could ignore the French and Arabic conversations on the double-deck railcar, I might think I\u2019m on a California high-speed train cutting through the Central Coast.<\/span><\/p>\n

Read more Asking Eric: I don\u2019t know the bride, and I\u2019m baffled about the gift protocol<\/a><\/p>\n

But this isn\u2019t California. And I can\u2019t travel through time to the distant decade when my home state gets high-speed rail.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I am riding (in late June) the first high-speed railway in Africa. It\u2019s called Al Boraq (\u201cThe Lightning\u201d in Arabic).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

My trek runs the line\u2019s full length. I board on the Atlantic coast at Casablanca\u2019s 10-track station. I disembark at Tangier\u2019s station, 400 meters from the Mediterranean. The schedule says the train will arrive in 2 hours, 17 minutes. Before Al Boraq opened in 2018, the same route took 5 hours.<\/span><\/p>\n

Yes, you read that right. Morocco has high-speed rail.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

California has excuses.<\/span><\/p>\n

The comparison between these two places might seem random, but it\u2019s revelatory. Morocco and California are similar in size (Morocco is 172,000 square miles, California 163,000) and population (California is 40 million, Morocco 37.4 million). Both rest on a continent\u2019s edge, with coastal cities, interior deserts, and <\/span>heavily irrigated agriculture<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

One big difference: California is more than 20 times richer. Morocco\u2019s GDP is $150 billion, while California\u2019s economy creeps toward $4 trillion.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

Yet California claims it doesn\u2019t have enough money for high-speed rail, even as Morocco built its 201-mile line<\/span>, requiring 286 engineering structures and 13 viaducts \u2014 including the landmark 3.5-kilometer <\/span>Hachef viaduct<\/span> south of Tangier.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

How did Morocco pull this off? International partnership, structural simplicity, and raw political will.<\/span><\/p>\n

Morocco\u2019s Al Boraq line cost only $15 million per mile, one of the lowest high-speed rail construction prices in the world. The first, 171-mile Bakersfield-to-Merced segment of California\u2019s line is projected at $35 billion \u2014 more than $200 million per mile.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Morocco\u2019s national railway partnered with its French counterpart, SNCF, and the engineering giant Alstom, so high-speed rail experts worked with Moroccan teams for every major task.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Read more Harriette Cole: My boyfriend doesn\u2019t like that I won\u2019t share my location<\/a><\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

California, meanwhile, has hired a rotating cast of executives and <\/span>outside consultants<\/span> who have bloated the project\u2019s budget to <\/span>more than $125 billion<\/span>, while delaying its <\/span>expected 2020 opening until 2033<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

You can quibble with just how \u201chigh-speed\u201d Al Boraq is. The train runs on conventional, shared tracks from Casablanca to its first stop, Rabat. Slowing the train in that segment was a pragmatic compromise that allowed the line to open quickly \u2014 at a station with links to the Casablanca airport \u2014 and start generating revenue and public adoration.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Which it has. Trains are so packed with younger riders that the loans for the project may be paid back early.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In Kenitra, 45 minutes north of Rabat, tracks become dedicated, high-speed only. From there the train races at 192 miles per hour to Tangier.<\/span><\/p>\n

This coastal line is merely Phase 1 of a 1,500-kilometer high-speed network, slated for completion by 2030, when Morocco is co-hosting the 2030 FIFA World Cup.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The next steps, already underway, include dedicated high-speed service between Rabat and Kenitra, and a brand-new high-speed line south from Casablanca to Marrakech and onward to Agadir. From Tangier to Agadir is the distance of San Francisco to San Diego.<\/span><\/p>\n

Yes, Morocco is highly centralized. When King Mohammed VI \u2014 the wealthiest individual in the country \u2014 decides a train will be built, it gets built. Nor must Morocco contend with California\u2019s labyrinth of zoning, lawsuits, and YIMBY-NIMBY politics.<\/span><\/p>\n

But attributing Morocco\u2019s triumph to autocracy misses the point. Morocco\u2019s success is rooted in things California desperately lacks: a reliance on institutional expertise rather than contractors and consultants, and a refusal to let the perfect be the enemy of the fast.<\/span><\/p>\n

As my train reaches the Tangier station right on schedule \u2014 exactly 2 hours, 17 minutes \u2014 I feel respect and frustration in equal measure. The North African kingdom has lessons to teach our state. Are Californians willing to listen?<\/span><\/p>\n

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Joe Mathews writes the Connecting California column for Z\u00f3calo Public Square.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A North African kingdom of modest wealth proved that focus and expert leadership beat endless delays<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5649,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5650","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion"],"yoast_head":"\nMathews: How California lost to Morocco in high-speed rail - Next City Digest<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=5650\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Mathews: How California lost to Morocco in high-speed rail - Next City Digest\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A North African kingdom of modest wealth proved that focus and expert leadership beat endless delays\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=5650\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Next City Digest\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-07-28T10:09:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/?p=5650#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/?p=5650\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/13065d40d633843429ac57d4e5c06f9b\"},\"headline\":\"Mathews: How California lost to Morocco in high-speed rail\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-07-28T10:09:49+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/?p=5650\"},\"wordCount\":721,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/?p=5650#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/6c8a1ff03811f4dae57a9a0e562d3fef-scaled.webp\",\"articleSection\":[\"Opinion\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/?p=5650#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/?p=5650\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/?p=5650\",\"name\":\"Mathews: How California lost to Morocco in high-speed rail - 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