# New Ferry Crossing



## Detourer (May 9, 2005)

It may be of some interest to those "Snow-Birds" winging their way to warmer shores this coming winter........

HM king Mohammed VI, accompanied by Prince Moulay Ismail, has just opened the Tangier Med Passengers port, a project worth 2.2 bln dirhams (about $ 244 mln).

Aiming to set up a maritime bridge to boost trade between Morocco and Europe, the new port consists of 8 ferry berths and has a capacity of 7 million passengers and 2 million passenger vehicles annually.......plus of course trucks/containers. The port, the second of the Tangier Med complex, provides access to ferry and roll-on roll-off traffic.

'Tanger Mediterranean' will start to come online this summer in a phased introduction, but as from mid-May [now] all ferries from Algeciras that previously went to 'Tanger City' will now go to 'Tanger Med'. Ferries from Tarifa, Sète, Barcelona and Genoa will continue to use Tanger City. These routes will switch to Tanger Med in October.

Down side is that many ticket agents are already licking their lips.... it looks like a good excuse to up the cost of the already very high Spain-Morocco crossings.

The road links from Tanger Med are excellent with a new motorway connecting the port to the existing A1 motorway heading south to Rabat. Heading east is a new four-lane highway to Fnediq (next to Ceuta) that then connects to the new motorway to Tetouan.

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