Sand covers the right rail in the curve at kilometer point 111 in the east moroccan desert. So the ORIENTAL DESERT EXPRESS stopped the journey from Oujda to Bouarfa and workers, which travelled along in the train for this purpose, cleared the track with shovels. The passengers were invited to help them, a nice experience. The line was built between 1925 and 1931 by the French. Passenger traffic, which has always been very weak, officially ceased in 1994. Since then, there have been occasional freight trains to transport manganese ore from Bouarfa. Today, the tourist train ORIENTAL DESERT EXPRESS still runs two or three times a year. The railroad line was never completely shut down for strategic reasons (proximity to the closed border with Algeria).
