RABAT, Morocco (AP) — French President Emmanuel Macron and Morocco's King Mohammed VI are inaugurating Morocco's first high-speed rail line, the first ever such line in Africa.

The $2 billion project was launched in September 2011 by the king and Nicolas Sarkozy, the former president of France, which jointly funded the line with several Arab states.

Known as the LGV — French for "high speed line" — it will connect the economic hubs of Tangier and Casablanca in 2 hours 10 minutes at a speed of 320 km/h (199m/h) instead of almost 5 hours on a regular train. It will be inaugurated Thursday.

Morocco bought 12 high speed trains from French train manufacturer Alstom.

The king named the first line Al Boraq after a mythical winged creature that transported the prophets to the heavens.