Unfortunately Interrail passes are not valid in Morocco.
With that out of the way, Morocco is a good country to explore by train and below are some tips for doing so.
Types of trains in Morocco
There is only one railway operator running trains in Morocco (ONCF). They operate several trains categories:
- al-Buraq. Those are high-speed trains based on French TGV system connecting three major cities: Tanger, Rabat and Casablanca. Only the Tanger-Rabat section is truly high speed (up to 300km/h) though.
- TNR. An SBahn-like service operating in the region of Casablaca. Those are served by a selection of EMUs, and offer high frequency service to places like Casablanca, el-Jadida, Kenitra and the Casablanca airport.
- TN / al-Atlas. Regular loco-pulled trains going to all corners of the country.
Tickets
You can purchase tickets online from https://www.oncf-voyages.ma/. You will receive a PDF with an itinerary and a QR code. You don’t need to print out the tickets, you can just show it to the conductor on your mobile device.
Alternatively you can purchase tickets at ticket counters at the stations.
Train stations
When you arrive at the train station, wait in the main hall. Only head to platforms about 10 minutes before departure. You will have to show your ticket to an ONCF employee at the entrance to the platforms area (note that there are ticket checks on trains as well).
Trains are announced at displays in stations. There you can find the number of the platform from which your train departs. The display alternate between Arabic and French, so if you can’t read it just wait a few moments.
Note that at the displays list connections with changes and so multiple entries may correspond to a single departure. For example when you are in el-Jadida, you may see several connections at the same time to Tanger, Rabat, Marrakech + the info that travellers to those destinations will have to change trains in Casablanca.
International connections
A good way to get to Morocco is to catch a ferry from Tarifa, Spain. The ferry goes to Tanger, where you can board the al-Buraq train.
There is also a ferry from Gibraltar, however that ferry terminates a bit farther from the nearest train station.
The Casablanca airport is directly connected to the train network. The Marrakech airport is not, so it’s best to use a taxi to get from the airport to the city.