THE heart of China’s national railway policy has been the pursuit of speed. And having built the world’s longest high-speed network from scratch, this week the country proudly launched its showcase project, the 1,318km (820-mile) Beijing-Shanghai line. Running at speeds of over 300km an hour, the sleek electric train cuts the travel time between China’s two most important cities by nearly half, to four hours and 48 minutes.

中國國家鐵路核心政策向來唯速度是瞻。如今，中國已建成了世界上最長的高速鐵路網(wǎng)絡(luò)，填補了之前的高鐵建設(shè)空白。本周，中國自豪地將其高鐵示范項目——高鐵京滬線投入運營，該線路全長1318公里（820英里），運行時速為每小時300多公里。這列流線造型的電氣列車將中國兩座最核心城市間的旅程時間縮短了將近一半，運行時間僅4小時48分。

The service is designed as a rival to air travel. Indeed, at Beijing South station, the ultra-modern facility resembles an airport. The other terminus, meanwhile, actually is at Shanghai’s domestic airport. But that means travellers lose the benefit of a downtown arrival, often touted as an advantage of trains. Even on intermediate stops, stations are far from urban centres.

高鐵服務(wù)的設(shè)計初衷就是與航空服務(wù)競爭。實際上，擁有超現(xiàn)代化設(shè)施的高鐵北京南站，其建筑模式與機(jī)場極其相似，同時高鐵的另一終端站實際上就位于上海虹橋機(jī)場。但這也意味著旅客失去了到達(dá)市中心的便利性，而市中心設(shè)站經(jīng)常被追捧為鐵路的優(yōu)勢所在。甚至是京滬高鐵的各沿途停靠站，其站點位置也都遠(yuǎn)離市中心。

Travel time might have been shorter still, but for controversy over the train’s speed. Journeys of 350km an hour had been promised. Then a system-wide slowdown to around 300km an hour was announced. At the time, the government insisted this was to save energy. It strenuously denied that safety was a factor, despite concerns from Chinese and foreign engineers. But now an official at China’s Railway Electrification Bureau admits the slowdown was based on concerns over safety after all.

要不是高鐵速度引起廣泛爭論，旅程時間本是可以進(jìn)一步縮短的。鐵路部門之前曾允諾列車運行時速將達(dá)350公里。但隨后又宣布系統(tǒng)全線減速到每小時300公里左右。當(dāng)時，政府堅稱這是出于節(jié)能考慮。盡管中外工程師對高鐵的安全性表示憂慮，但政府卻極力否認(rèn)安全性是被考慮的因素。現(xiàn)在中國鐵路電氣化局的一名官員終于肯承認(rèn)高鐵降速是出于安全性考慮。

The Beijing-Shanghai line took only three years to build. With a price tag of $34 billion, it may never recoup its costs. Still, better connections could bring more productivity gains to China than in more developed countries. Ying Jin at Cambridge University says high-speed rail could foster development away from China’s megacities.

高鐵京滬線建設(shè)歷時僅三年。高達(dá)340億美元的造價意味著它可能永遠(yuǎn)收不回成本。但是與那些更發(fā)達(dá)的國家相比，更完善的鐵路連接將為中國帶來更高效的經(jīng)濟(jì)收益。劍橋大學(xué)的應(yīng)金表示中國高鐵可能帶動中國特大城市以外地區(qū)的經(jīng)濟(jì)發(fā)展。

Meanwhile, for those who find the line’s suburban stations inconvenient, Mr Ying says, people need only be patient. With urbanisation in China roaring ahead, it is only a matter of time before the cities pull up at the stations, rather than the other way around.

應(yīng)先生同時表示，對于那些認(rèn)為高鐵郊區(qū)設(shè)站不夠方便的人們來說，他們需要的是耐心。隨著中國城市化的步伐突飛猛進(jìn)，高鐵設(shè)站城市將向遠(yuǎn)郊的高鐵站發(fā)展延伸，而不是越加遠(yuǎn)離，而實現(xiàn)這些也只是時間的問題。