By: Express

One thing that might not occur to many people is the chance to ride Africa's first (and very affordable) high-speed railway, but it was on my list of things to do from the second I booked my flights.

The 201-mile line between Casablanca and Tangier opened in 2018, and plans are underway to expand the network across Morocco. It is Named Al-Boraq, after a flying horse creature from Islamic tradition.

For now, however, it just runs between the two cities, and I arrived early at Casablanca's modern Voyageurs Station to maximise my experience.

I'd booked a first-class ticket about three weeks in advance on the Moroccan railway company ONCF's official website. A non-refundable first-class ticket costs 199 dirhams (around £15.57). I try to avoid even looking at the eye-watering first-class fares when buying a ticket from Stoke-on-Trent to Manchester, much less considering buying one, so I thought it was worth treating myself.

As one of the perks of the Al-Boraq service, passengers with first-class tickets have access to the Al-Boraq lounges at both Casablanca and Tangiers stations, so I handed my phone to the attendant to scan my QR code.

Inside was a fairly comfortable lounge with plenty of chairs, desks, and plug sockets for charging phones and other devices.   There was also a free coffee machine and a large fridge filled with complimentary bottles of water, which never go amiss when you're travelling somewhere as hot as Morocco.

After around 30 minutes of sipping coffee and using the free Wi-Fi (a feature at every station in Morocco, as far as I could tell), we were called to the train.

The carriages were all of the double-decker type that you see in European countries like the Netherlands, and I took my reserved seat.