A train crash that killed at least 39 people has raised fresh questions about China’s high-speed rail ambitions and will lend support to critics calling for more investment in conventional, slower technology.

　　一起至少造成39人死亡的列車(chē)相撞事故，讓人們對(duì)中國(guó)的高鐵夢(mèng)提出了新的質(zhì)疑，也為呼吁把更多資金投向速度較慢的常規(guī)鐵路技術(shù)的批評(píng)者提供了論據(jù)。

　　Another 210 people were injured in the first serious accident involving Chinese bullet trains. It happened when one train hurtled into another that had stalled near the city of Wenzhou, south of Shanghai.

　　這是中國(guó)動(dòng)車(chē)組列車(chē)的首起嚴(yán)重事故，它還造成210名乘客受傷。事故發(fā)生時(shí)，一輛列車(chē)飛速撞向另一輛停駛在溫州市附近的列車(chē)。

　　The government embarked on a massive spending drive five years ago to build the world’s largest high-speed rail network in record time. But what was meant as a source of national pride and efficiency has instead become one of embarrassment and concern.

　　中國(guó)政府5年前開(kāi)始大舉投資，希望在創(chuàng)紀(jì)錄的短時(shí)間內(nèi)建成全世界最大的高速鐵路網(wǎng)絡(luò)。修建高鐵本意在于激發(fā)民族自豪感并提升效率，但現(xiàn)在卻變成了一件令人難堪和憂慮的事情。

　　Saturday’s accident, which tossed six train carriages off the tracks in a pile of twisted metal, was the latest and most devastating setback for China’s rail programme.

　　在上周六發(fā)生的這起事故中，有6節(jié)車(chē)廂被撞出鐵軌，變成一堆扭曲的廢鐵。這是中國(guó)鐵路發(fā)展計(jì)劃遭遇的最新的，也是破壞性最大的一起挫敗。

　　The fatal collision stemmed from extraordinary circumstances, according to state television. Lightning struck the first train, knocking out an electronic warning system that would have prevented the other train from hitting it. But the power loss was eerily similar to failures that have halted trains on the Beijing-Shanghai line at least three times since it opened less than a month ago.

　　官方電視臺(tái)稱(chēng)，這起致命撞車(chē)事件是因極其特殊的情況而起：閃電擊中了首列列車(chē)，摧毀了電子預(yù)警系統(tǒng)，而這個(gè)預(yù)警系統(tǒng)本可以阻止第二輛列車(chē)沖向它。但是，這起事故中出現(xiàn)的停電現(xiàn)象，卻與京滬高鐵上導(dǎo)致列車(chē)停駛的故障情況詭異地相似。京滬高鐵運(yùn)行尚不足一個(gè)月，就已經(jīng)發(fā)生過(guò)3起與之類(lèi)似的事故。

　　In the past six months, the railways minister has been dismissed for “serious disciplinary violations” and his replacement has announced a big reduction of top speeds following safety concerns, while a new line between Beijing and Shanghai has been beset by stoppages.

　　過(guò)去半年中，原鐵道部長(zhǎng)劉志軍因“嚴(yán)重違紀(jì)”而被免職。新任鐵道部長(zhǎng)盛光祖出于安全方面的顧慮，宣布大幅調(diào)低高鐵列車(chē)運(yùn)行的最高速度。而新建成的京滬高鐵已多次受到停駛困擾。

　　This year, Sheng Guangzu, the new railways minister, vowed to stick to a blueprint to expand the country’s track network to 120,000km by 2015 from the current 91,000km. But a smaller expenditure target implied that Beijing was decreasing the portion of the newly-built lines that would be high speed. The crash will have reinforced the scaling back of these ambitions.

　　盛光祖承諾，今年，鐵道部將堅(jiān)持執(zhí)行到2015年把全國(guó)鐵路運(yùn)營(yíng)里程從目前的9.1萬(wàn)公里增加到12萬(wàn)公里的計(jì)劃。但投資目標(biāo)金額被下調(diào)，這說(shuō)明北京方面計(jì)劃降低高鐵在新建鐵路中所占的比例。此次撞車(chē)事故應(yīng)該會(huì)促使高鐵夢(mèng)進(jìn)一步降格。

　　Debt has become another indication that all is not well in China’s bullet train build-out. The railway ministry’s liabilities have tripled in two years to hit Rmb1,980bn ($307bn), state media reported last week. Although it is easily within the government’s capacity to repay, the ministry had been expected to fund itself largely through cash flow, and the debt is an indication of investment gone awry.

　　而鐵道部的債務(wù)情況也反映出，中國(guó)擴(kuò)建高速列車(chē)線路的進(jìn)程不太順利。官方媒體上周報(bào)道，鐵道部的債務(wù)在兩年間增加了兩倍，達(dá)到1.98萬(wàn)億元人民幣（合3070億美元）。雖然中國(guó)政府有充足財(cái)力償還這些債務(wù)，但鐵道部原本應(yīng)該依靠自身的現(xiàn)金流來(lái)為鐵路建設(shè)融資，現(xiàn)在的債務(wù)情況說(shuō)明投資出現(xiàn)了問(wèn)題。

　　That is no surprise to Zhao Jian, a professor at Northern Transport University and an outspoken -opponent of the high-speed rail plans. He has argued that ultra-fast trains make sense between large cities that are relatively close to each other. However, the cost of building high-speed lines over vast distances, where air travel is a better option “will become a serious drag on economic development”, he said in a recent essay.

　　北京交通大學(xué)(Beijing Jiaotong University)教授趙堅(jiān)對(duì)高鐵計(jì)劃一直公開(kāi)持批評(píng)態(tài)度。上述債務(wù)情況在他看來(lái)并不意外。他在最近發(fā)表的一篇文章中表示，在相距較近的大城市間修建超高速鐵路尚屬合理，但如果要在相距很遠(yuǎn)、更適合搭乘飛機(jī)往來(lái)的城市間修建高鐵，其建設(shè)成本將會(huì)“嚴(yán)重拖累經(jīng)濟(jì)發(fā)展”。

　　One of the trains in the collision was exactly the kind that Mr Zhao has criticised. From Beijing to Fuzhou, the capital of Fujian province, train D301 was supposed to cover 2,223km in less than 14 hours.

　　上周六相撞的兩列動(dòng)車(chē)中，有一列恰恰行駛在趙堅(jiān)所批評(píng)的那種路線上，它就是從北京出發(fā)開(kāi)往福建省會(huì)福州的D301次動(dòng)車(chē)，全程行駛里程2223公里，計(jì)劃行駛時(shí)間不到14個(gè)小時(shí)。

　　The answer is not for China to pare back its spending on railways, but to direct it more sensibly, analysts say. The Chinese rail system carries about a quarter of global freight and passenger traffic on 6 percent of the world’s lines. The density of its network, measured in line distance per inhabitant, is about a tenth of that in the US, a seventh of the European Union’s and a third of Japan’s, according to the World Bank.

　　分析人士指出，解決辦法并不是要求中國(guó)削減鐵路建設(shè)開(kāi)支，而是引導(dǎo)它更理智地投資。中國(guó)鐵路系統(tǒng)用占世界6%的里程數(shù)承載著占世界四分之一的貨物和乘客運(yùn)量。世界銀行(World Bank)數(shù)據(jù)顯示，按人均鐵路里程衡量，中國(guó)鐵路網(wǎng)的密度相當(dāng)于美國(guó)的十分之一、歐盟的七分之一、日本的三分之一。

　　 It would be better to build conventional, high-capacity lines than fast trains that carry fewer people and cost more, Mr Zhao said.

　　趙堅(jiān)說(shuō)，與其建設(shè)運(yùn)載乘客更少、耗資更多的高速鐵路，不如建設(shè)運(yùn)載能力高的常規(guī)鐵路。

　　 But China had also been hoping to transform its bullet trains into a large export, the sort of sophisticated product that it wants to sell to the world as it graduates from being a low-cost manufacturer.

　　然而，中國(guó)一直希望把高速列車(chē)變成一個(gè)大規(guī)模出口產(chǎn)品。在中國(guó)逐步擺脫低成本制造國(guó)身份之際，高速列車(chē)正是它希望銷(xiāo)往全世界的那類(lèi)先進(jìn)產(chǎn)品。

　　This month, Beijing trumpeted that Malaysia would buy 228 trains, the first export deal for Chinese-made bullet trains. China’s CSR Corp has also signed a deal with General Electric to make trains for high-speed lines in the US.

　　本月，北京方面高調(diào)宣布馬來(lái)西亞將從中國(guó)進(jìn)口228輛動(dòng)車(chē)，這是中國(guó)制造的動(dòng)車(chē)組的首宗出口交易。中國(guó)南車(chē)(CSR Corp)也已與通用電氣(General Electric)簽署協(xié)議，為美國(guó)高鐵線路制造列車(chē)。

　　Even before the crash, the Chinese export plans were running into trouble from Japan’s Kawasaki Heavy Industries, which said it would take action if China filed for patents on trains using Japanese technology.

　　在這次撞車(chē)事故發(fā)生之前，中國(guó)的動(dòng)車(chē)出口計(jì)劃就遭遇了麻煩——日本川崎重工(Kawasaki Heavy Industries)表示，如果中國(guó)對(duì)使用日本技術(shù)制造的列車(chē)申報(bào)專(zhuān)利，它便會(huì)采取相應(yīng)行動(dòng)。

　　Of the trains that collided on Saturday, one was based on a Kawasaki design and the other was based on a model by Canada’s Bombardier. Chinese railway officials previously said they had “digested” the foreign technology and then reinnovated to create their own intellectual property.

　　上周六相撞的兩列動(dòng)車(chē)中，其中一列是在川崎重工的設(shè)計(jì)基礎(chǔ)上制造的，另一列是在加拿大龐巴迪(Bombardier)的設(shè)計(jì)基礎(chǔ)上制造的。中國(guó)鐵路官員過(guò)去曾表示，中國(guó)在“消化了”外國(guó)技術(shù)后進(jìn)行了再創(chuàng)新，創(chuàng)造出了自主知識(shí)產(chǎn)權(quán)。