Spain and Morocco have revived the Gibraltar Strait railway tunnel project that would connect Africa with Europe by extending new funding for research and design studies. The project is featured in the Schiller Institute’s report, “The Eurasian Land Bridge Becomes the New Silk Road.” (EIR, 2014)
According to Railtech.com, Spain’s government gazette on June 16 confirms Madrid’s approval to transfer €2.3 million to the Spanish Society for Fixed Communication Studies through the Strait of Gibraltar (SECEGSA), for a design study. The funds originate from the European Union financed Plan for Recovery, Transformation and Resilience (PRTR).
Dubbed the “Europe-Africa Gibraltar Strait fixed link” project, it would entail a high-speed passenger and freight railway. While the straits is 14 km wide, a tunnel would have to be some 40 km long because of its great depth of between 300-900 meters. The Fixed-Link Project was established following the Spanish-Moroccan Joint Declaration, dated June 16, 1979 in Fez, by King Hassan II of Morocco and King Juan Carlos I of Spain. The Complementary Agreement of October 24, 1980 set up a Joint Spanish-Moroccan Committee, the Spanish Society for Fixed Communication Across the Strait of Gibraltar, and the Moroccan “Société Nationale d’Études du Détroit de Gibraltar” (National Society for the Study of the Strait of Gibraltar).
Despite the fact that several studies and designs were drafted in the early 2000s,the project went all but dormant in 2009, following the last joint committee meeting in October 2009. But in February 2023, Spain’s Minister of Transport Raquel Sanchez and her counterpart Morocco’s Minister of Equipment and Water Nizar Baraka met in Rabat and agreed to restart studies on the project with the intention of commencing construction around 2030. Two months later, in April, the 43rd meeting of the Spanish-Moroccan Joint Committee of the Fixed Link Project of the Straits of Gibraltar took place.
If completed, the rail tunnel would link Spain’s very extensive high-speed rail network with Morocco’s, which is Africa’s first high-speed rail line, called Al Boraq connecting Casablanca and Tangier (spanning 323 km), which has been operating since 2018. The Moroccan railway links to those in Algeria and Tunisia, although neither is high-speed rail. (https://www.railtech.com/infrastructure/2023/06/22/new-funding-secured-for-research-into-morocco-spain-underwater-rail-tunnel/? )
