Gare Casablanca Voyageurs

I was one my way from El Jadida to the big city of Marrakesh. Unfortunately, there was no direct train from El Jadida to Marrakesh. One would need to transfer to another train. I chose to transfer at Gare Casablanca Voyageurs. I don’t know if this is the biggest one in Casablanca, but it certainly feels like it. The interiors of the train station give that feeling that you are in an airport terminal. This is certainly an ultramodern train station and you would not think that you are actually in Africa. There are not a lot of European train stations that can compete with this either. I got myself a quick lunch of McDonald’s at the train station. Unfortunately, that is the fastest food I can find since I don’t want to be caught still eating while my train arrives. Unlike airplanes, there is no checking in here, once they will leave, they will leave. For the most part, most of the trains I took were on time. There would be the odd train which would be late but it wasn’t so bad.

In the meantime, I decided to take some photos of the train station. The station apparently is elevated above the tracks and you would go down to the platforms to board the train. To get a photo of the train station, I had to go outside and down a flight of stairs. There were several men waiting at the bottom of the stairs and they made me feel a little uneasy. Turns out that they were cab drivers. They were waiting for passengers from the trains and apparently they are not allowed to go up to the station itself. I’m glad they actually follow this rule because being hassled by touts is one of the worst parts of traveling. On the way back, I got a look at the train tracks themselves. There is a viewing area behind the station where you can see trains pulling in. It is quite thoughtful of them to build something like that.

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