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人死亡的列車相撞事故，讓人們對中國的高鐵夢提出了新的質疑，也為呼吁把更多資金投向速度較慢的常規(guī)鐵路技術的批評者提供了論據(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.

　　這是中國動車組列車的首起嚴重事故，它還造成210名乘客受傷。事故發(fā)生時，一輛列車飛速撞向另一輛停駛在溫州市附近的列車。

　　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.

　　中國政府5年前開始大舉投資，希望在創(chuàng)紀錄的短時間內(nèi)建成全世界最大的高速鐵路網(wǎng)絡。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)車廂被撞出鐵軌，變成一堆扭曲的廢鐵。這是中國鐵路發(fā)展計劃遭遇的最新的，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.

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

　　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.

　　過去半年中，原鐵道部長劉志軍因“嚴重違紀”而被免職。新任鐵道部長盛光祖出于安全方面的顧慮，宣布大幅調低高鐵列車運行的最高速度。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，鐵道部將堅持執(zhí)行到2015年把全國鐵路運營里程從目前的9.1萬公里增加到12萬公里的計劃。但投資目標金額被下調，這說明北京方面計劃降低高鐵在新建鐵路中所占的比例。此次撞車事故應該會促使高鐵夢進一步降格。

　　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.

　　而鐵道部的債務情況也反映出，中國擴建高速列車線路的進程不太順利。官方媒體上周報道，鐵道部的債務在兩年間增加了兩倍，達到1.98萬億元人民幣（合3070億美元）。雖然中國政府有充足財力償還這些債務，但鐵道部原本應該依靠自身的現(xiàn)金流來為鐵路建設融資，現(xiàn)在的債務情況說明投資出現(xiàn)了問題。

　　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(Beijing Jiaotong University)教授趙堅對高鐵計劃一直公開持批評態(tài)度。上述債務情況在他看來并不意外。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、更適合搭乘飛機往來的城市間修建高鐵，其建設成本將會“嚴重拖累經(jīng)濟發(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車中，有一列恰恰行駛在趙堅所批評的那種路線上，它就是從北京出發(fā)開往福建省會福州的D301次動車，全程行駛里程2223公里，計劃行駛時間不到14個小時。

　　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削減鐵路建設開支，而是引導它更理智地投資。中國鐵路系統(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量。世界銀行(World Bank)數(shù)據(jù)顯示，按人均鐵路里程衡量，中國鐵路網(wǎng)的密度相當于美國的十分之一、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.

　　趙堅說，與其建設運載乘客更少、耗資更多的高速鐵路，不如建設運載能力高的常規(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，中國一直希望把高速列車變成一個大規(guī)模出口產(chǎn)品。在中國逐步擺脫低成本制造國身份之際，高速列車正是它希望銷往全世界的那類先進產(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，北京方面高調宣布馬來西亞將從中國進口228輛動車，這是中國制造的動車組的首宗出口交易。中國南車(CSR Corp)也已與通用電氣(General Electric)簽署協(xié)議，為美國高鐵線路制造列車。

　　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.

　　在這次撞車事故發(fā)生之前，中國的動車出口計劃就遭遇了麻煩——日本川崎重工(Kawasaki Heavy Industries)表示，如果中國對使用日本技術制造的列車申報專利，它便會采取相應行動。

　　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車中，其中一列是在川崎重工的設計基礎上制造的，另一列是在加拿大龐巴迪(Bombardier)的設計基礎上制造的。中國鐵路官員過去曾表示，中國在“消化了”外國技術后進行了再創(chuàng)新，創(chuàng)造出了自主知識產(chǎn)權。