The Board of Directors of the National Office of Railways (ONCF), meeting Friday in Rabat under the chairmanship of the Minister of Transport and Logistics, Mohammed Abdeljalil, reported the confirmation of the recovery and the performance of the various activities of the Office during the year 2022.
“The behavior of the various activities of the Office was part, during the year 2022, of the confirmation of the sustained performance initiated since the post-COVID recovery. The passenger transport activity is a perfect example of this. It recorded a remarkable recovery compared to 2021, returning to or even exceeding the performance before COVID. At the end of December 2022, all the indicators show a considerable improvement”, indicates the ONCF on its website.
According to the same source, Abdeljalil underlined, in his opening remarks, that the repositioning of sustainable mobility at the heart of development strategies for a clean and green transport sector, inevitably involves the promotion of rail. It is clear that this mode offers the best solution to strengthen the connectivity of territories in a more efficient, more viable and more environmentally friendly way. The efforts made over the past two decades and the in-depth reforms carried out, combined with the acceleration of the pace of investment in the sector, are beginning to bear fruit, within the framework of the policy of major projects inspired by the Vision enlightened vision of King Mohammed VI, aiming for global and sustainable development throughout the Kingdom.
Beginning his speech, Mohamed Rabie Khlie, Director General of ONCF recalled that the year 2022 was particularly rich and dense. It was marked, among other things, by records recorded in the two passenger and freight segments, the start of the green transition and the Office’s eco-responsible commitment, notable progress in terms of setting up an ecosystem in Morocco and structuring studies for the development of the national rail network.
Khlie also noted that the national rail operator confirmed in 2022, its good recovery, despite a difficult economic situation. This is how the office has accumulated records on several registers: annual transport record of nearly 46 million passengers, daily record of 180,000 passengers/day recorded in August 2022 and record in terms of transport of goods. miscellaneous, in particular cars with 370,000 units transported and coal with 1 million tonnes transported.
Thus, the transport offers, services and services offered both in the station and on board trains of all categories seem to respond well to passenger expectations and have resulted in a number of customers transported which has improved by 33 % from 34.5 million in 2021 to nearly 46 million in 2022 (38.3 million passengers transported in 2019, before COVID), generating a turnover up 42% to 2.2 billion dirhams (MMDH) during the past year, specifies the same source.
Al Boraq is a good illustration of the performance of passenger rail activity. Barely 4 years following its commissioning, it has already offered innovative and sustainable mobility to more than 4.2 million passengers in 2022 (i.e. +60% compared to 2021), with a regularity rate of 96.3 % and generated a constantly improving turnover of 562 million dirhams (MDH), i.e. +63% compared to 2021. It being understood that the Al Boraq trains switched during 2022 to green mode, powered by wind energy green, representing more than 25% of the Office’s overall energy consumption.
As for the transport of goods, it continued in 2022 to show strong resilience, overall recording a sustained improvement in its indicators. More than 20.9 million tonnes of goods transported in 2022 and a turnover of 1.7 billion dirhams (with record rail freight turnover exceeding 634 million dirhams, i.e. +19% compared to 2021) .
The good recovery of passenger activity and the resilience of goods transport activities enabled the Office to achieve in 2022, a turnover exceeding for the first time the milestone of 4 billion dirhams once morest 3.6 billion dirhams in 2021 (i.e. +13%). These green lights confirm the ONCF in its strategy for a better rebalancing between its different areas of activity.
In 2022, the Office generated an EBITDA of 1.4 billion dirhams, up 39% compared to 2021, thanks to the good performance of the activities but also thanks to the policy of controlling expenses despite the context marked by inflation in the prices of materials and energy. The Director General also specified that the financial results of the Office marked a remarkable evolution both in relation to the previous financial year and in relation to the budget forecasts adopted, despite the weight of capital charges linked to the development of infrastructures and the impact of provisions related to exchange rate fluctuations. Excluding these elements, the Office’s net result is a profit of 587 million dirhams, reflecting the real performance of ONCF.
As the backbone of mobility in Morocco and essential lever of the socio-economic dynamics experienced by the Kingdom, ONCF has hoisted the development of the national rail network, in particular through the construction of new high-speed extensions, such as a priority axis of its development plans. The objective is to position rail as the locomotive of a sustainable and clean mobility system to offer more capacity on the conventional network and to promote the creation of a local service in the main regions of the Kingdom.