中国火车乘客"被高速"?
【英文原文】
'Hijacked By High-Speed Trains'
China will launch what it calls the world's fastest railway service linking Wuhan and Guangzhou in two days, shortening the 10.5-hour trip to just three hours.
However, this otherwise welcome and national-pride-generating event is drawing unexpected criticism from media and passengers regarding the way it is handled by the Ministry of Railways, the sole rail operator in China.
The ministry's Wuhan branch has decided that because of the introduction of the high-speed trains, it will suspend a number of existing, much-slower counterparts on the same route.
Why is this seemingly rational decision bad news for many Chinese? It comes down to cost: The cheapest fare for the new high-speed service is 490 yuan (around $72), more than three times that of the slow train.
Adding to the controversy is the fact that the high-speed trains run on its own, separate tracks and cause no conflict with its plain and slower counterparts.
Passengers interviewed by China Business News, a Shanghai-based newspaper, called themselves 'hijacked by the high-speed trains'. 'What are poor people going to do if they want to travel?' one of them asked.
An unnamed official from the ministry's Wuhan branch explained the decision to the newspaper: While rail transportation is an industry with lots of social responsibilities, it needs to take into account the market economy and commercial benefits.
The incident is joining a lengthening list of price hikes that push up living costs in China. And many items, ranging from utilities to taxi fares, share one feature: They are under state monopoly and done in the name of 'market reforms.'
These 'reforms' appear to lead to mainly one result - higher prices, with the authorities often referring to global trends in the case of oil and burdensome government subsidies over the years. The reforms have little to do with liberalizing industries or introducing more competition.
More often than not, Chinese consumers have no choice but accept such price hikes.
But it's worrying that such things are happening at a time when Beijing appears intent on making the economy less dependent on cheap exports and let private consumption play a bigger role.
While China has taken actions, albeit rather limited, to solidify its social safety net via healthcare reforms, it's heading in the opposite direction in other areas.
Chinese are already saving a lot for expensive higher education and barely affordable housing. Now many of them will have to save some more for a train ticket.
【中文译文】
中国即将开通武汉与广州间的高速铁路服务，据称这是世界上最快的铁路，将原先10.5小时的旅程缩短至仅仅3个小时。
Bloomberg News
不过，这件本应大受欢迎和令举国上下感到自豪的事情却出人意料地引来了媒体和乘客的批评，起因主要在于中国唯一铁路运营商铁道部的处理方式。
铁道部武汉铁路局决定，由于高速铁路的推出，将取消同一条线路上许多现有的速度较慢的车次。
为什么这个看似合理的决定让许多中国人视为坏消息呢？问题在于成本：新高铁的最低票价是490元（约合72美元），是普通列车票价的3倍多。
引起争议的另外一点是高速列车有自己的单独轨道，并不会与速度较慢的普通列车发生冲突。
接受上海报纸《第一财经日报》(China Business News)采访的乘客称他们“被高速”了。其中一人问道：穷人出行怎么办？
铁道部武汉铁路局一位未具名官员是这样向《第一财经日报》解释这个决定的：铁路是一个非常注重社会效益的行业，但也要考虑市场经济和经营效益。
项目不断增加的一份涨价清单推高了中国的生活成本，这次的票价也成为了其中的一项。从水电费到出租车费在内的许多项目都有一个共性：它们都处于垄断体系之下，都是以“市场改革”的名义进行的。
这些改革带来的一个主要结果就是：涨价。政府部门常常将此归因于全球油价走势和政府不堪多年来补贴的重负。这种改革与放开相关行业或引入更多竞争无关。
情况往往是，中国的消费者别无选择，只能接受涨价。
但令人担心的是，这种事情发生在中国政府希望降低经济对廉价出口的依赖性和让私人消费发挥更大作用之际。
中国虽然采取了有限的行动，通过医疗卫生改革加强社会保障体系，但在其它领域却走上了相反的方向。
中国人已经在为昂贵的教育和难以负担的住房而尽力储蓄。如今其中许多人还要再为火车票省吃俭用了。
