https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/morocco-launches-10-billion-rail-expansion-plan-2025-04-24/
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āDesigned for 350 km/hā but with train sets only capable of 320 km/h at best? Thatās a fundamental disconnect right there. The cost difference for that extra 30 km/h will be substantial.
Iām surprised there is no mention of China.
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The connection to Europe, especially France, remains strong.
You donāt know the difference in construction parameters or cost to go from 320kmh to 350kmh
Seems to me one would want a small safety margin above the anticipated top speed of equipment.
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Why would that surprise you? Does Russia buy Chinese trains? Just a hop and skip across a shared border Though you might want Check out that collapsing Serbian train stationā¦which is a feature I am sure the Serbs never thought they paid for. Then there was the collapsing Thailand concrete buildingā¦then of course one of the main concrete bridges in Beijing collapsed. The Russians connected the dots about 15-20 years ago, you should read their posts on discord. One of Chinaās closest allies from what I read elsewhere. From the discord posts they are really POād on Chinese EVās.
Russians have had same issues with theft of IP via China and their military bloggers used to publicly poke fun of latest and greatest China military press releases but the Kremlin asked them to stop about 2 years ago. Though Chris Cappy a fellow Texan and former GWOT Infantryman still does it on Youtubeā¦itās pretty funny when Chris does it.
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My point was that the Moroccans were surely pitched something under Belt and Road, perhaps with appealing-looking terms. Perhaps they did āsee throughā issues with QC, or with assuming heavy debt with the subsequent possibility of loss of strategic assets upon default, but I thought it was strange that there was no mention of it at all, even as a possible option.
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Funny you donāt mention that in the US on average 128 bridges collapse annually. Or the numerous failures of the Army Corps of Engineers?
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That would be very old infrastructure vs stuff recently built. There is a serious problem with Chinese corruption in regards to building construction in the area of at least concrete but also other structural areas. The corruption is indemic to the CCP and is exponentially greater than anything you may have experienced in the United States. You should have picked up on it by now being a frequent traveler to China. It is noticed elsewhere on social media by folks that live in Asia outside of China. Though I might mention the Chinese Citizens that post on WeChat know what is really going on as well in a lot of cases. You want to see people plow through pedestrians with their cars or knife people or kids on the street in China. WeChat is the place to go look. It never makes it on our news shows but it happens quite a bit over there.
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Those do make it on news here as well as other problems. Friends in PRC do inform me of a good deal. Additionally, my wife can read Chinese posts that are written in characters (jiantizi).
Many posts on FB and WeChat purporting to be from PRC are not legit. Cars running into crowds happen here
and Canada, too, if you read actual media, along with weekly mass shootings here. The Vancouver killings were apparently racially motivated.
GWT indeed! What a waste (~$8 trillion). We could have built a lot of modern passenger rail for that.
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Morocco is probably the most Western-leaning Saharan Africa nation so maybe they didnāt take the Chinese up on any offers. I spent a day in Casablanca last December while on a transatlantic cruise. Very friendly and welcoming people who know that tourism is very important to them.
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