经济学人下载:高铁在中国

High-speed rail in China
中国高速铁路

Tracking slower
“悄然”降速

A showcase line, but throttling back
一条用于示范但“缩水”的高铁线路

Jun 30th 2011 | SHANGHAI | from the print edition

THE heart of China’s national railway policy has been the pursuit of speed. And having built the world’s longest high-speed network from scratch, this week the country proudly launched its showcase project, the 1,318km (820-mile) Beijing-Shanghai line. Running at speeds of over 300km an hour, the sleek electric train cuts the travel time between China’s two most important cities by nearly half, to four hours and 48 minutes.

中国国家铁路核心政策向来唯速度是瞻。如今，中国已建成了世界上最长的高速铁路网络，填补了之前的高铁建设空白。本周，中国自豪地将其高铁示范项目——高铁京沪线投入运营，该线路全长1318公里（820英里），运行时速为每小时300多公里。这列流线造型的电气列车将中国两座最核心城市间的旅程时间缩短了将近一半，运行时间仅4小时48分。

The service is designed as a rival to air travel. Indeed, at Beijing South station, the ultra-modern facility resembles an airport. The other terminus, meanwhile, actually is at Shanghai’s domestic airport. But that means travellers lose the benefit of a downtown arrival, often touted as an advantage of trains. Even on intermediate stops, stations are far from urban centres.

高铁服务的设计初衷就是与航空服务竞争。实际上，拥有超现代化设施的高铁北京南站，其建筑模式与机场极其相似，同时高铁的另一终端站实际上就位于上海虹桥机场。但这也意味着旅客失去了到达市中心的便利性，而市中心设站经常被追捧为铁路的优势所在。甚至是京沪高铁的各沿途停靠站，其站点位置也都远离市中心。