評論
打印
Britain
來源于《英國》版塊
Railways
鐵路
Getting back on track
回歸正軌
Rising fares and falling punctuality are undermining confidence in the rail-franchise system. What should replace it?
票價上漲和準點率下降正在削弱英國人對鐵路特許經營體系的信心。應該用什么來代替它呢?
Many office serfs like to slip away early on Friday afternoons in the quiet summer months. So anger boiled over on August 9th when several rail lines were shut down following a power cut. Delays were so bad on lines going north from London that it was quicker for some commuters to trudge home on foot. The snafu was the fault of the electricity industry rather than the train companies. But it added to the railways’ growing reputation for unreliability. With dreadful timing, it was announced a few days later that fares would go up again next year, by 2.8%.
在寧靜的夏季，許多上班族喜歡在周五下午早早地溜出去。因此，當8月9日幾條鐵路因斷電而被迫關閉時，憤怒爆發了。從倫敦往北的線路延誤嚴重，需要通勤的人走路回家都比等延誤的車要快。這次混亂是電力行業的錯，而不是鐵路公司的錯。但這加重了人們對于鐵路公司不可靠的印象。發生這種糟糕事情幾天后，鐵路公司宣布明年票價將再次上漲2.8%。
Boris Johnson’s government is consumed by the task of getting Britain out of the European Union by October 31st. But before then it must also make two big decisions about the railways. The first is whether to go ahead with HS2, a high-speed line between London and the north. The second is how to fix the rest of the network. This autumn an official review by Keith Williams, a former British Airways boss, will consider how to reform the franchising system under which most lines operate. Mr Williams has already said the current set-up has “had its day” and talked of “revolution, not evolution”.
鮑里斯•約翰遜政府正忙于在10月31日前完成英國脫歐。但在此之前，英國政府還必須就鐵路做出兩項重大決定。首先是是否繼續建設HS2高速鐵路，這是一條連接倫敦和北部的高速鐵路。第二個問題是如何修復鐵路網的其余部分。今年秋天，英國航空公司前老板基思•威廉姆斯的一份官方評估報告，引起了如何改革大多數鐵路公司運營的特許經營體系的思考。威廉姆斯已經表示，目前的格局“已經風光不再”，他談到的是“革命，而不是進化”。
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