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Europe
歐洲版塊
The train in Spain
西班牙的火車
To the end of the earth
直到世界的盡頭
Spain's high-speed network reaches far-off Galicia
西班牙的高速鐵路網絡延伸到了遙遠的加利西亞
FOR CENTURIES the main way to Galicia, Spain's north-western corner, was on foot, on the pilgrims' trail to Santiago de Compostela.
幾個世紀以來，前往西班牙西北角加利西亞的主要方式是徒步，這是朝圣者前往圣地亞哥德孔波斯特拉的路線。
Poor roads meant that, until a decade or two ago, the drive from Madrid took nine hours.
十年或二十年前，糟糕的路況意味著，從馬德里開車過去仍需要9個小時。
Recent improvements have cut the trip to the closest Galician city, Ourense, to about five.
近來的改善已經將去往距離最近的加利西亞城市烏倫斯的行程，減少到5小時左右。
Now the journey can be made in two hours and 15 minutes thanks to Galicia's first connection with Spain's enviable high-speed railway network.
現在，由于加利西亞首次連接進了西班牙令人羨慕的高速鐵路網絡，這段旅程只需2小時15分鐘。
Next year the line should be extended to Santiago, the regional capital, and A Corua, its biggest city.
明年，這條線路將延伸到地區首府圣地亞哥和最大的城市拉科魯尼亞。
"Cinderella can now travel in a bigger and more comfortable car," said Ourense's mayor, Gonzalo Pérez Jácome, using his nickname for his city, which he says is treated like an unloved stepchild.
烏倫斯市市長岡薩羅·佩雷斯·查科姆說：“灰姑娘現在可以乘坐更大更舒適的汽車旅行了。”他用自己的綽號來稱呼這座城市，他說烏倫斯市被當作不受寵愛的繼子來對待。
No one wants to be left out of the system—Spain has the biggest high-speed rail network in the world after China's—but he doubts that the new extension will bring dramatic changes.
西班牙擁有僅次于中國的世界上最大的高速鐵路網，沒有人想被排除在這個系統之外。但是他懷疑新的鐵路擴建是否會帶來劇變。
Spaniards have long been leaving poorer rural areas for better opportunities in richer cities.
長期以來，西班牙人離開較貧窮的農村地區，到較富裕的城市尋找更好的發展機會。
Politicians in rural areas lament this.
農村地區的政治家對此有些抱怨。
But it is not obvious that pricey infrastructure will do much to curb it.
但昂貴的基礎建設是否能起到很大的抑制作用還不清楚。
Mr Jácome notes that Zamora, until recently the high-speed trains' last stop en route to Galicia, has gained weekend tourists but continued to lose population since their arrival in 2015.
查科姆先生指出，直到最近，前往加利西亞的高鐵最后一站薩莫拉建成了，雖然周末游客人數有所增加，但自2015年以來，人口仍在持續減少。
In any case, Galicia has been doing well.
不管怎么說，加利西亞地區一直做得很好。
It was once a byword for isolation and poverty, "the end of the world", as the name of its westernmost point, Cape Finisterre, indicates.
它曾經是孤立和貧窮的代名詞，正如其最西端的菲尼斯特雷角的名字所表明的那樣，是“世界的盡頭”。
So many Galicians emigrated that gallego is still synonymous with "Spaniard" in parts of Latin America.
如此多的加利西亞人移居國外，以至于在拉丁美洲部分地區，加列戈仍然是“西班牙人”的同義詞。
But GDP per person, 66% of the national average in 1955, is now 92% of it.
但人均GDP，在1955年是全國平均水平的66%，現在是92%。
ngel de la Fuente of FEDEA, an economic think-tank, points to fish processing, carmaking and clothing (Inditex, the parent company of Zara and other brands, is based there) and reasonably business-friendly politics, though he says a single cause of its catch-up is hard to identify.
經濟智庫FEDEA的恩格爾·德拉富恩特說，盡管他很難找出經濟迎頭趕上的單一原因，但他指出了漁業加工、汽車制造和服裝業（Zara的母公司Inditex和其他品牌的公司就設在那里）以及合理的商業友好政策是一些影響因素。
Another fix for Spain's regional disparities has been proposed by the Socialist-led national government: opening new state bodies outside the capital.
社會黨領導的國家政府提出了另一個解決西班牙地區差距的辦法：在首都以外設立新的國家機構。
Many bigwigs in the conservative People's Party (PP) say this would be pointless.
保守的人民黨中的許多大人物說這將毫無意義。
Galicia's leader, the PP's moderate Alberto Nuez Feijóo, has a warmer reaction, noting that it makes little sense to put the country's Institute of Oceanography in landlocked Madrid.
加利西亞省的領導人，人民黨的溫和派阿爾貝托·努涅斯·費約對此反應較為熱烈，他指出，將該國的海洋學研究所設在內陸城市馬德里毫無意義。
Once, people would have said the same about putting world-conquering companies and ultra-modern trains in Galicia.
曾經，人們對在加利西亞建立征服世界的大公司和超現代化的火車也是同樣的反應。
