Ruins of the abandoned El Harracha railroad station in the desert of eastern Morroco, about 30 kilometers as the crow flies northeast of Ain Beni Mathar, on the 305-kilometer (189 miles) rail line from Oujda to Bouarfa. 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). The two crossing tracks in El Harracha are no longer usable because the switches were dismantled, the tracks remained useless. The picture was taken out of the front door of the last car of the Oriental Desert Express.
