中國火車乘客"被高速"?

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【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.

【中文譯文】

中國即將開通武漢與廣州間的高速鐵路服務，據稱這是世界上最快的鐵路，將原先10.5小時的旅程縮短至僅僅3個小時。

Bloomberg News
不過，這件本應大受歡迎和令舉國上下感到自豪的事情卻出人意料地引來了媒體和乘客的批評，起因主要在於中國唯一鐵路運營商鐵道部的處理方式。

鐵道部武漢鐵路局決定，由於高速鐵路的推出，將取消同一條線路上許多現有的速度較慢的車次。

爲什麼這個看似合理的決定讓許多中國人視爲壞消息呢？問題在於成本：新高鐵的最低票價是490元（約合72美元），是普通列車票價的3倍多。

引起爭議的另外一點是高速列車有自己的單獨軌道，並不會與速度較慢的普通列車發生衝突。

接受上海報紙《第一財經日報》(China Business News)採訪的乘客稱他們“被高速”了。其中一人問道：窮人出行怎麼辦？

鐵道部武漢鐵路局一位未具名官員是這樣向《第一財經日報》解釋這個決定的：鐵路是一個非常注重社會效益的行業，但也要考慮市場經濟和經營效益。

項目不斷增加的一份漲價清單推高了中國的生活成本，這次的票價也成爲了其中的一項。從水電費到出租車費在內的許多項目都有一個共性：它們都處於壟斷體系之下，都是以“市場改革”的名義進行的。

這些改革帶來的一個主要結果就是：漲價。政府部門常常將此歸因於全球油價走勢和政府不堪多年來補貼的重負。這種改革與放開相關行業或引入更多競爭無關。

情況往往是，中國的消費者別無選擇，只能接受漲價。

但令人擔心的是，這種事情發生在中國政府希望降低經濟對廉價出口的依賴性和讓私人消費發揮更大作用之際。