不久前剛剛訪問中國的倫敦市長鮑里斯•約翰遜昨天在英國《每日電訊報》發表文章回憶自己在華乘坐高鐵的經歷，敦促英國國內早點就修建高鐵計劃達成共識。

　　倫敦市長鮑里斯·約翰遜乘坐中國高鐵，在列車上陷入了深深的思考

　　英國政府2012年計劃斥資327億英鎊修建一條連接倫敦、伯明翰及北部城市的高鐵線路“HS2”。英國政府預計，一期工程“倫敦至伯明翰線”將于2026年建成，投資額約為170億英鎊，屆時倫敦到伯明翰的時間將從1個半小時縮短到49分鐘。二期工程“曼城、利茲及西斯羅機場延線”將于2033年落成。高速鐵路建成后，可以節省民眾和商務人士的時間成本，每年為英國節約上百億英鎊。英國也可以借此趕上世界發展高鐵的潮流，避免被其他國家落在后面。

　　這一計劃雖受到商界人士和工會的支持，但遭到沿線居民團體、地方議會以及環保組織的抗議，甚至包括威爾士事務大臣謝里爾•吉蘭在內的政府官員也因為考慮到選民的反彈，對此計劃頗有微詞。遭到各方反對的高鐵遲遲未能動工。這讓鮑里斯•約翰遜感到不滿，他在《每日電訊報》上發表文章稱中國修建高鐵的效率很高。

　　英國政府計劃修建的HS2高速鐵路線因為種種原因遲遲未能開工

　　以下是鮑里斯•約翰遜在《每日電訊報》專欄上文章的節選翻譯：

　　我在中國乘坐高鐵的經歷中有很多令人吃驚的事情，它的速度要比最快的馬薩拉蒂跑車還要快，它飛馳在田野上，能看到戴著草帽的農民星星點點，它穿越高山，一座座新城由近而遠。坐在車上的噪音或震動甚至沒有一只貓咪發出的咕嚕聲來的巨大——但這還不是中國高鐵最驚奇的地方。

　　令人驚訝的并不是高鐵的速度、安靜和舒適，而是我們的中國朋友在我2006年去中國之后的短時間內修建整條高鐵的效率。他們修建了813英里長的京滬高鐵，像步槍槍管一樣筆直，沿途還有那么多新火車站，那里的廳堂如此潔凈——這一切一共花了多長時間?兩年!而兩年的時間我們在HS2高鐵上做了些什么?我們花了數億英鎊來進行各種規劃、咨詢，但沒有鋪下一根鐵軌。

　　中國的京滬高鐵2008年4月18日正式開工，2011年6月30日通車

　　兩年！

　　在我們龐大的基礎設施建設工程中，這一段時間剛夠用來進行第一次環境影響評價咨詢會議。然后將會有許多影響評價和評判重申和上訴，規劃調查和各種哈欠連篇的討價還價舒適地持續上十年甚至更久的時間。這就是我們無法辦到中國兩年之內所做的事情的原因。

　　如果我們對于面對我國的基礎設施建設需求還抱有一線希望的話，我們首先需要認識到問題的嚴重性——隨著本世紀中葉英國將人口增長并超過8000萬，我們需要從現在開始就用高效環保的方式規劃大部分問題使他們有所居，提供它們生活需要的公共衛生與能源，而首先，我們要給予它們快速在國內經濟發展地區間快速交通的能力。

　　隨后鮑里斯抱怨了英國工黨在高鐵建設上的“破壞性”努力，并表示不能容忍工黨讓英國高鐵“脫軌”。

　　翻頁可閱讀鮑里斯•約翰遜在《每日電訊報》專欄文章《中國用了兩年造了它的HS2，別讓工黨讓我們出軌》英文原文。

　　There were quite a few amazing things about the high-speed train I took the other day in China. It went faster than the fastest Maserati ever made, and it shot through fields dotted with stooping straw-hatted peasants and it zoomed past high mountains and sprouting new cities and it emitted no more noise or vibration than a purring cat – but that wasn’t the truly extraordinary thing about the route.

　　It wasn’t the speed or the silence or the comfort or the supply of hot towels. It was the fact that our Chinese friends had built the whole darned thing since I had been there last, in 2006. They made the entire 813-mile track from Beijing to Shanghai, rifle-barrel straight, with umpteen gorgeous new marbled stations, with concourses so clean you could use them to gobble your dim sum – and how long did it take them? It took two years! Two years, amigos. That is how long we have already been gassing away about HS2, a period in which we have spent literally hundreds of millions of pounds on drawings and consultants and planning and what have you – and not laid so much as a rail.

　　Two years!

　　That is the kind of period we set aside, in our big infrastructure projects, for the first consultation on the environmental impact assessment. And then there will be the equalities impact assessments and the judicial reviews and the appeals and the planning inquiries and the whole spine-cracking yawnathon that will comfortably soak up a decade or more in which we fail to achieve what the Chinese have done in two years.

　　If we are to have any hope of meeting the infrastructure needs of this country we need first to recognise the severity of the problem – that with a population set to grow to about 80 million by the middle of the century, we need to plan now for the most effective and environmentally sensitive way of housing this population, of providing them with sanitation and power, and above all of enabling them to move speedily between the great wealth-creating zones of this country.

　　One way or the other, we are going to need HS2, and it is a total disgrace that the Labour Party is now playing politics with the scheme. They are shamelessly courting the sceptic vote – feigning support but unofficially signalling that a Labour government would pull the plug. Ed Balls has said that the case has yet to be made out – even though he went into the last election with HS2 in his manifesto.

　　Alistair Darling has said it is a “disaster”. Peter Mandelson now claims the whole thing was nothing but an electoral gimmick and should be junked. And you can see why Labour is so tempted, and why they have played this card. They have an economic credibility problem. They are going to have to persuade the electorate that they have some big and unexpected source of funding that will enable them to fulfil all their promises – to cut your fuel bills and plump your pension and subsidise the minimum wage – and the answer is always going to be HS2.

　　They can also see that the Tories are facing a revolt from those on the route, and from those who aren’t convinced that the scheme represents a good use of public money. Their objective is to make the project politically toxic with a drip, drip, drip of cold water, in a kind of chemical reaction: HS2 + H2O = H2SO4. They hope that continuing anxieties about noise and property prices will cost the Tories votes in key marginals. They are fomenting general hostility to the scheme, and, in particular, they are supporting those who say that investment in HS2 means diverting crucial spending from other parts of the railway network – and there I believe they are talking more nonsense than ever.

　　This was exactly the case that was made to me, more than five years ago, when the economic crash first happened and we were about to commit to spending £16 billion on Crossrail. It was mad, people said, to build a whole new railway under London when the rest of the Tube network was in urgent need of repair, when we were still using bakelite signalling on the District line and when funds were so desperately short. I remember a passionate denunciation of the scheme from one distinguished transport executive. “Why would you buy a shiny new car and park in front of the house, when the house is falling down?” he asked me.

　　Well, I think he was wrong then, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he agreed that he looks even more wrong now. We have not only got on with delivering Crossrail – absolutely vital to increase capacity on the London rail network. We have upgraded the Tube as well. We have cut delays by 40 per cent over the last five years, to pick a period entirely at random, and we are going on with a programme of improvements – with new signalling and automation – that will cut delays by a further 30 per cent.

　　It is now absolutely clear that this decision was right, because the population of London has risen by about half a million in the same period, and is likely to keep rising for the next couple of decades. Without these investments, our public transport system would have rapidly exploded with the strain. Britain has the potential to be the biggest economy in Europe, both in population and output, in our lifetimes; but we simply will not be able to cope, or to give business the platform it needs, if we fail to invest in infrastructure. We need a new supersewer under London, we need a new hub airport, and we need to increase our rail capacity.

　　There was a time when people like Peter Mandelson and Tony Blair would have recognised this. It is deeply regrettable that the current Labour Party leadership should be so opportunistic and short-sighted as to pussyfoot around about HS2. They are putting short-term tactics before the long-term needs of Britain, and they will not succeed. In 2015 the choice is going to be clear: between fool’s gold, and a Conservative programme for investment and long-term growth.

× 烏有之鄉 WYZXWK.COM

您的打賞將用于網站日常運行與維護。
幫助我們辦好網站，宣傳紅色文化！

歡迎掃描下方二維碼，訂閱烏有之鄉網刊微信公眾號