A TGV high-speed train awaits passengers at the Casablanca railway station in Morocco.

The automated English voice over the loudspeaker is polite and American-accented.

“For your convenience, we invite you to make your phone calls from the platform between the cars.”

I am sitting in a plush green seat. Outside, the landscape blurs into a familiar tapestry of scrub, yellowing grasses, eucalyptus trees, oaks, and waves from a west-facing seacoast. If I could ignore the French and Arabic conversations on the double-deck railcar, I might think I’m on a California high-speed train cutting through the Inland Empire or Central Coast.

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But this isn’t the Golden State. And I can’t travel through time to the distant decade when California actually gets high-speed rail.

I am riding (in late June) the first and only high-speed railway in Africa. It’s called Al Boraq (“The Lightning” in Arabic). It’s run by Morocco’s national rail company, ONCF.

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My trek runs the line’s full length. I board on the Atlantic coast at Casablanca’s 10-track station, which has Starbucks, McDonald’s, and glowing arrivals screens. I disembark at Tangier’s station, 400 meters from the Mediterranean. The schedule says the train will arrive in 2 hours,17 minutes. Before Al Boraq opened in 2018, the same route took 5 hours.

Yes, you read that right.........

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