经济学人下载:China,Off the rails?中国出轨了？

Public support for high-speed trains is muted. The trains may reach 350km per hour but fares are proportionately eye- watering. That is all right for well-heeled travellers, happy to have an alternative to flying. But tens of millions of poor migrants who work far afield and flock home for the Chinese new year are being priced out the rail market and have to go by bus (the number of bus journeys is soaring).

公众对高铁建设缺乏支持。高铁时速可达350公里，但是票价花费也很高昂。对于惯于乘飞机旅行的人来说，高铁是个不错的选择。但是数以亿计的农民工，往往离开家乡来到城市工作，在春节时却因为买不起火车票而不得不改坐长途大巴（选择巴士出行的农民工正在增加）。

The sacking of top officials may be the result merely of one of China’s periodic anti-corruption campaigns. Or it may be the upshot of a high-level factional or personal battle, in which corruption charges are often a favourite weapon. If so, the dismissals would not necessarily affect railway development.

铁道部长的解职也许只是中国阶段性的反腐运动的结果，或者是高层人士和派系斗争的侧影。这些斗争通常都把腐败指控作为最佳武器。如果刘志军的下台只是因为政治斗争，那么中国铁路的发展可能不会受太大影响。

But some experts think construction may slow down. In his first public remarks, the new railways minister, Sheng Guangzu, repeatedly stressed the importance of quality and safety, implying that corruption may have led to corner-cutting, and that the timetables on some projects may now have to change. The breakneck pace of construction has also left the ministry with large and—say some analysts—unsustainable debts, putting further pressure on projects.

但是一些专家担心建设速度会慢下来。新任铁道部长盛光祖在第一次公开讲话中，反复强调质量和安全的重要性，这意味着贪污可能造成了不利的影响，那么一些工程的安排也许会改变。高铁建设的极快速度也让铁道部负债累累，某些分析人士称这些大量的债务难以维系。债务问题也给工程建设带来了更大的压力。

No one thinks China is going to make drastic changes to what is a signature national programme. (And one from which it hopes to spin off lucrative contracts building railways in Algeria, Iran, Russia, Kazakhstan and elsewhere.) But it might postpone some of the dizzier schemes, such as one to build a freight line across mountainous northern Colombia to rival the Panama canal. And all those high-speed lines in China might now be laid at a slightly less breakneck pace.

没人会觉得中国将会对高铁这个国家形象工程做一些巨大调整。（中国希望发展高铁来获得阿尔及利亚，伊朗，俄罗斯，哈萨克斯坦和世界其它地方的铁路建设合同。）但是中国可能将一些不现实的铁路建设计划推迟，比如建造一条穿越哥伦比亚北部山区，直抵巴拿马运河的货运铁路。现在中国的这些高铁线路建设速度也许会放慢一点点，但依然很快。