MARRAKESH STATION (MOROCCO)

Prosperity means end of line for station

Photos by Yomiuri Shimbun Photographer Yasunari Itayama

By Yuko Iida

Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer

Beside two young women, their heads swathed in scarves, stood a backpack-toting Western tourist. Nearby was a family with a baby buggy. All of them stood in the shade of orange trees heavy with fruit, waiting for the Marrakesh express to arrive.

Abdelzak Alboudali, the 43-year-old deputy chief of Marrakesh Menara ward, remembered his first train ride from the station when he was 15 years old. Traveling alone to Casablanca made him feel like a grown-up.

When the train reached Casablanca, he got out empty-handed to take a breather. As he turned round to get his luggage, the doors closed and the train pulled out of the station.

It turned out that there were four stations in Casablanca, and the one he was heading for was farther down the line. "I grew up in Marrakesh. A country boy like me didn't know anything about the big city," he said.

Marrakesh is no longer a country town. Hollywood movie stars, including Brad Pitt and Bruce Willis, own holiday homes in the suburbs. Renowned soccer player David Beckham and his wife stay at a luxury hotel and go shopping in the city. The city's warm climate and exotic atmosphere attract the world's jet set.

Marrakesh has also become a nostalgic location for wealthy Moroccan expatriates. A middle-aged woman, waiting for a train with her Italian husband, said: "We live in Switzerland. We love Marrakesh and come here every time we return to our home in Casablanca."

A young man who flits between Rabat, Morocco's capital, and the United States had brought his family to the city for a holiday. "We like its unique atmosphere," he said.

The city's economy has been booming since the late 1990s due to soaring land costs, and the accompanying movement of commerce and people. Accordingly, there is a plan to build a larger station, about 200 meters east of the current one.