2019年经济学人 英国铁路(1)（在线收听）

Britain

来源于《英国》版块

Railways

铁路

Getting back on track

回归正轨

Rising fares and falling punctuality are undermining confidence in the rail-franchise system. What should replace it?

票价上涨和准点率下降正在削弱英国人对铁路特许经营体系的信心。应该用什么来代替它呢?

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%.

在宁静的夏季，许多上班族喜欢在周五下午早早地溜出去。因此，当8月9日几条铁路因断电而被迫关闭时，愤怒爆发了。从伦敦往北的线路延误严重，需要通勤的人走路回家都比等延误的车要快。这次混乱是电力行业的错，而不是铁路公司的错。但这加重了人们对于铁路公司不可靠的印象。发生这种糟糕事情几天后，铁路公司宣布明年票价将再次上涨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”.

鲍里斯?约翰逊政府正忙于在10月31日前完成英国脱欧。但在此之前，英国政府还必须就铁路做出两项重大决定。首先是是否继续建设HS2高速铁路，这是一条连接伦敦和北部的高速铁路。第二个问题是如何修复铁路网的其余部分。今年秋天，英国航空公司前老板基思?威廉姆斯的一份官方评估报告将考虑如何改革大多数航空公司运营的特许经营体系。威廉姆斯已经表示，目前的格局“已经风光不再”，他谈到的是“革命，而不是进化”。