In 2011, the Tramway between Sale and Rabat opened. The tram offers efficient public transportation between Rabat and Sale, across the Bouregreg River. It appears that Moroccans are proud of this tramway, which ranks as the number one thing to do in Rabat, Morocco. As a tourist, it would be a bit further down the list behind Chellah Necropolis, Mausoleum of Mohammed V, the Kasbah of the Udayas and the Medina. But my wife and I did have an opportunity to take the tram and our language barrier was not an issue. After spending an hours trolling along the Bouregreg Marina, my wife and I found ourselves near a tram station and decided to check it out.
As we approached the train station, I discovered a large map that was easy enough to read. We had a general understanding of our location and the location of our hotel. While Rabat is not based on a simple grid, the map helped orient us and gave us two options for stations to disembark. Both were about the same distance from our hotel.
We roughly knew how to pronounce Royal Palais, which was just past our hotel, so that is the stop we asked for. The attendant sold us two tickets for six dirham each, which equates to about sixty cents or so per ticket. Not bad for public transit. I would imagine that price would have gotten us anywhere in the zone we were in. I believe there are currently just two zones, with two more under construction. For tourists remaining in the downtown area, the current train is adequate. With ticket in hand we waited for the purple tram to arrive. It was the next to arrive and was only two or three minutes wait after purchasing our tickets.
While it is difficult to see in this photo, the train has a digital sign across the top that indicates which line you are on. The same as with most buses. As the doors to the train open, there is a card reader located inside the doorway. Travelers merely scan the ticket as the board the train. The train was rather full, so we opted to stand, since we were only traveling three stops. While we determined that from the map, the ticketing agent also held up three fingers when we purchased the ticket, confirming what we were guessing would be our stop.
There were a variety of people on the tram, which was immaculately clean. It appeared that almost all (if not all, aside from my wife and I) were locals. The train announced each station as we arrived, so we were easily able to decipher which stops we were at, in spite of our inability to speak Arabic and our practically non-existent French. We knew the names of the stops, which was enough to keep track. We oriented ourselves to the Royal Palace as we exited the tram to help us figure out which direction we needed to walk.
It took a second, but we were able to position ourselves once we walked from the station toward the main intersection. We were just two blocks from our hotel, but needed to cross a major intersection twice, to the far corner to proceed to our hotel. It was a busy enough intersection that their were police directing traffic. The station before was also two blocks from the hotel, but would have been much easier to navigate from, had we known prior. But all in all, it was a painless trip that we would easily recommend to tourists, even those with a language barrier. It was not difficult to navigate if you have a decent sense of direction.
The tram is currently twelve miles long and transports 172,000 people per day.
The Tramway maintains a Website where you can obtain additional information. For those who plan to stay in Rabat longer than a day, there are special rates for weekly, monthly and annual passes. The transportation maps above can be found at that website as well.
Overall, we enjoyed the tram. It was clean, quiet, safe and easy to navigate. The price was inexpensive. Public transportation says a lot about the community it is located. The Tramway had good things to say. We would definitely ride it again.
All photos, other than the maps, are my own. They may be reproduced with prior permission.
