The Marrakech Express

Everyone knows the song. Fewer people know that the Marrakech Express is a real train — and that you can still ride it. In 1966 a young Graham Nash took the train south from Casablanca to Marrakech, grew bored of his stuffy first-class compartment, and went to sit further down the train among the traders and the "ducks and pigs and chickens." Out of that ride came a song, rejected by his old band The Hollies and taken up by his new one; in 1969 "Marrakesh Express" became Crosby, Stills & Nash's very first single.

The train is still there. Today it is one of ONCF's Al Atlas intercity services, running the roughly 240 kilometres from Casablanca down across the plains to Marrakech in about three hours — comfortable, frequent and cheap, and every bit as full of everyday Moroccan life as it was when Nash rode it. If you're coming from the north, Al Boraq, Africa's high-speed train, whisks you to Casablanca first, and the Al Atlas takes over from there.

What waits at the end is one of the great cities of the world: Marrakech, the Red City, its ochre walls at the foot of the snow-topped High Atlas, its heart the roaring square of the Jemaa el-Fna. The train sets you down in a station like a palace, a few minutes from the medina — the perfect slow arrival at a place that rewards taking your time.

The journey begins at Casa-Voyageurs in Casablanca — now also the southern terminus of the Al Boraq high-speed line, so many travellers arrive here off the bullet train from Tangier and simply change platforms. The Al Atlas intercity train pulls out through the sprawl of Morocco's largest city and settles onto the main line south.

Beyond the suburbs the country opens into the plains — the wide, dry farmland of the Moroccan interior, dotted with olive groves, flocks of sheep and low ochre villages. The train calls at Settat, deep in the cereal country, and at Benguerir, and the land grows steadily browner and emptier as it climbs almost imperceptibly towards the south. This is the stretch Graham Nash rode: an ordinary train, full of families and traders and their bundles, the landscape rolling by the big windows.

Then, ahead, the horizon changes. The plains run up against a long wall of mountains — the High Atlas, snow-topped well into spring, rising behind the city to Jbel Toubkal, the highest peak in North Africa. Beneath them, the rose-red walls of Marrakech appear, and the train draws in beneath the keyhole arches and carved palm-leaf pillars of Gare de Marrakech — one of the handsomest stations on the continent.

A few things worth knowing about the run:

• It is an ONCF Al Atlas intercity service — no train is officially called the "Marrakech Express"; the name belongs to the song.
• Casablanca to Marrakech is about 240 km and takes around three hours, with up to ten trains a day.
• Trains have first and second class; through services also run from Rabat and Tangier.
• From Casablanca you can connect straight off Al Boraq, making the whole north-to-south trip in a day.

Break the journey if you can: a night in Casablanca for the great mosque on the Atlantic, then the slow run down to Marrakech, arriving as the light turns the walls red and the Jemaa el-Fna comes to life.

The Casablanca–Marrakech line is one of ONCF's busiest: Al Atlas trains leave Casa-Voyageurs about every two hours from around 06:00 to the evening (10 or more a day), so you rarely wait long for a departure.

The journey takes about 2 hours 40 minutes, covering roughly 240 km from Casa-Voyageurs to Marrakech, calling at Settat and Benguerir on the way. Many services start further up the line at Rabat, and some run through from Tangier, so the exact timing depends on where your train began.

If you are coming down from the north on Al Boraq, ride the high-speed train to Casa-Voyageurs and change there onto the next Al Atlas for Marrakech; the two lines meet at the same station and connections are frequent.

Al Atlas trains carry first and second class, both with reserved seating, so in the high season (autumn to spring, when Marrakech is at its best) it is worth booking a day or two ahead. Note the timetable shifts during Ramadan. Summer is quieter on the train but fierce in Marrakech, where temperatures regularly top 40°C — most travellers come between October and April.

Frequency and journey time as of the 2026 timetable. Confirm current times and fares with the operator — see the Tickets section below.

The train is run by ONCF, Morocco's national railway, and tickets are easy to arrange:

• Online, at ONCF's booking site oncf-voyages.ma (opens in a new tab), which has an English option and issues e-tickets to your phone.
• At the station, from the windows or machines at Casa-Voyageurs, Marrakech and the intermediate stops.
• Through a booking agent, several of which resell ONCF tickets in English for a small mark-up.

There are two classes — first (première) and second (deuxième). First class has wider, reserved seats in a quieter, air-conditioned car and is well worth the small premium on the three-hour run; second class is comfortable and excellent value. On the busy Al Atlas services seats are reserved, so book ahead in the autumn-to-spring high season.

Fares are inexpensive by international standards and shift a little with demand, so we don't quote a figure here — follow the links in the ticket cards above for current prices from ONCF. If you're travelling the length of the country, you can usually book Al Boraq to Casablanca and the Al Atlas onward to Marrakech in one transaction on the same site.

The reward at the end of the line is Marrakech itself — but the run down from the coast also gives you an easy excuse to see Casablanca first.

Marrakech, the Red City, is one of Morocco's four imperial capitals and the country's great magnet for travellers. Its heart is the Jemaa el-Fna, the vast square that fills each evening with orange-juice carts, snake-charmers, musicians, storytellers and clouds of grilled-meat smoke — a spectacle UNESCO lists as a "Masterpiece of Oral and Intangible Heritage." Around it spread the souks, a labyrinth of alleys selling lanterns, leather, carpets and spices. The perfect minaret of the 12th-century Koutoubia Mosque presides over the medina; the Bahia Palace, the Saadian Tombs and the ruined El Badi Palace recall the city's dynasties; and in the new town the cobalt-blue Jardin Majorelle — the painter's garden later saved by Yves Saint Laurent — is a cool green refuge. Beyond the walls, the High Atlas is close enough for a day trip to a Berber village or the Ourika Valley.

Casablanca, where the line begins, is worth a stop for the colossal Hassan II Mosque, one of the largest in the world, whose minaret rises straight out of the Atlantic; for the Art Deco architecture of the old French quarter; and for the seafront Corniche.

Between the two, the plains and market towns the train crosses — Settat, Benguerir — are working agricultural Morocco rather than sights, but they set the scene: the long, dry approach that makes the first glimpse of the Atlas, and of Marrakech beneath it, so striking.

In Marrakech, there is really only one thing to do: sleep in a riad. These traditional courtyard houses, hidden behind plain medina walls, open inward onto tiled patios, plunge pools and orange trees, with rooftop terraces looking over the rooftops to the Koutoubia and the Atlas beyond. Dozens have been restored as small guesthouses in the medina, most within walking distance of the Jemaa el-Fna — though the lanes are a maze, so arrange for someone to meet you. For more space, pools and gardens, the palm groves and the Hivernage and Guéliz districts hold the larger hotels and the grande-dame La Mamounia, a short taxi ride from the station and the square.

The station sits in Guéliz, the modern town, a ten-minute taxi from the medina — so whether you arrive by day or after dark, you are never far from your bed.

In Casablanca, if you break the journey at the northern end, the Art Deco centre and the seafront Corniche near the Hassan II Mosque are the pleasant places to stay, both central and close to Casa-Voyageurs station.

As with all our journeys, we keep this to the lie of the land rather than specific bookings — in Marrakech, choose the medina for atmosphere or the new town for space and a pool, and let the riad or hotel follow from there.