[2007.07.05] Europe’s Railways – A high-speed revolution

AS THE fastest train in Europe reaches its top speed of 320kph (200mph) the glasses of wine on the bar barely wobble. Champagne country is a blur as the train tears along Europe’s newest high-speed line—the first to link France and Germany. France’s Train à Grande Vitesse (TGV) can now travel between Stuttgart and Paris in only three hours 40 minutes instead of six hours. The latest generation of Germany’s Inter-City Express (ICE) trains has similarly shrunk the journey time between Frankfurt and Paris.
当欧洲最快的列车达到它每小时320公里（每小时200英里）最高速度时，吧台上那些杯中的酒竟然很少晃动。当列车飞驰在第一条连接法兰西和德国的欧洲最新的高速线上时，香槟之国有些看不清楚了。法兰西的法国高速列车（TGV）现在可以在3小时40分钟内从斯图尔特跑到巴黎，而不是6个小时。最新一代德国城际快速列车（ICE）让法兰克福和巴黎间的旅行时间也相应缩短了。

This week high-speed railways in France, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Austria and Switzerland joined with existing international services, such as the cross-channel Eurostar and the Paris-Brussels Thalys, to form Railteam, a new marketing alliance. The aim by the end of next year is to have one website that will allow travellers to view timetables and prices and, with one or two clicks, book tickets from one end of Europe to another. At the European Commission’s insistence, Railteam members will compete on prices, though there could be some tricky moments as some of them team up to take on airlines.
本周法兰西，德国，比利时，荷兰，奥地利以及瑞士的高速铁路和已有的国际铁路，比如跨海峡欧洲之星（参1），还有巴黎到布鲁塞尔的大力士高速列车（Thalys，亦译作西北高速列车，参2）组成了一个新的营销联盟，Railteam（高速列车大联盟）。下一年底的目标是组建一个允许乘客浏览列车时刻表和价目表的网站，并且只用点击一两下就可以订购一张从欧洲这边到那边的票。在欧盟委员会的坚持下，Railteam联盟成员将会进行价格竞争，尽管这样以来有些成员会一起合谋耍一些不太光明的手段对付航空公司。

Europe is in the grip of a high-speed rail revolution. Four new lines are opening this year and next, with trains running up to 320kph (see map). The eastern France TGV line is the first, to be followed in November by a new link from the Channel Tunnel to a new rail hub at London St Pancras, connecting Britain’s first really fast line to the rest of the network. Paris will be only two hours 20 minutes away, and Brussels less than two hours. By 2008 Brussels will have new high-speed links to Amsterdam and Cologne. Railteam’s aim is to increase high-speed passengers from 15m a year today to 25m by 2010.
欧洲高速铁路革命方兴未艾。今明两年会开通四条列车能跑到320公里每小时（请看地图）的新线路，。法兰西东边TGV线是第一条，接着是11月份的连接跨海隧道到一个新的铁路枢纽伦敦St Pancras（大英图书馆，参3）的新线，将英国第一条高速线和它的其它网络连接起来了。到巴黎将只用2小时20分钟，到布鲁塞尔连2小时都不到了。截至2008年，布鲁塞尔会有新的高速线通到阿姆斯特丹和科隆。Railteam的目标是在2010年前将高速乘客每年1500万增加至每年2500万。

The opening of the TGV-Est last month marked a huge change of heart for France. Its high-speed rail network has been spinning a web from Paris to the corners of the French hexagon since the mid-1970s. But now the TGV-Est wires France into the heart of its biggest neighbour, Germany, and gives birth to a joint venture between the French and German state-owned railways, SNCF and Deutsche Bahn (DB).
上个月开通的TGV-Est标志着法兰西观念上的重大改变。它的高速铁路网络从20世纪70年代中期就一直在从巴黎到法国六个角落扩展其网络。但是现在TGV-Est将法兰西织进了德国，其最大的邻邦的中心，并且促使了法国和德国的国有铁路集团，SNCF和德意志Bahn（DB）之间诞生了一个合资企业。

Although joint ventures between state-owned rail champions and a grand Railteam marketing alliance might not seem an ideal way of introducing a new level of competition into an industry long regarded as rusty, it is an important start. International passenger-rail services in Europe will be opened up to competition from January 2010. It could lead to a dramatic liberalisation of Europe’s railways, akin to that of its airlines. Europe’s open skies led to more privatisation of state airlines and the emergence of new, low-cost carriers such as easyJet and Ryanair. If Europe’s railway revolution stays on track, an easyTrain or Ryanrail could emerge.
尽管往这个长久以来被认为衰退的产业中引进新一轮竞争，国有铁路拥护者们之间的合资企业和一个大的Railteam营销联盟好像并不是什么理想的方式，它却是一个重要的开端。欧洲国际客运铁路将会在2010年1月份开始公开竞争。这个可能导致欧洲铁路业一次显著的自由化，类似于其航空业的做法。欧洲开放的领空导致了国家航空公司的更多的私有化并且有新的，低成本的运营商出现，比如easyJet和Ryanair。如果欧洲铁路革命会按照设想发展的话，一个easyTrain 或者Ryanrail就会出现的。

The prospects for Europe’s trains have hardly been better since the great age of steam. For decades planes, cars and lorries have been quicker, more convenient and usually more reliable ways to transport people and goods throughout much of Europe. But concern over climate change, hassles at overcrowded airports, delayed flights and congested roads have conspired with better high-speed rail technology to make the train an increasingly attractive alternative, and an especially green one: a full high-speed electric train emits between a tenth and a quarter of the carbon dioxide of a plane, according to the bosses of Eurostar.
欧洲列车的前景自从蒸汽大时代以来就一直都没有多少改观。几十年来飞机，汽车还有卡车都已经更快，更便捷并且通常也更可靠地在大部分欧洲运送乘客和货物。但是，伴随者更好的高速铁路技术，有关气候变化的担忧，过于拥挤的机场的烦扰，晚点的航班以及拥塞的道路一起都促使列车变成了愈来愈吸引人的选择，并且是特别绿色环保的一种选择：根据欧洲之星老总们的说法，一个高速电气化列车排放的二氧化碳只有一个飞机的1/10到1/4左右。

Signalling problems
提出问题

Nevertheless, running railways is an expensive business and integration across national borders is painful and fraught with technical and political obstacles. Much of the expense is shouldered by taxpayers, who pay for the dedicated high-speed tracks, but the train services that run on them mostly make a profit (though Eurostar has been dogged by losses relating to the Channel Tunnel).
不过，经营铁路是一个非常昂贵的生意，跨国境的整合也很痛苦，充满了技术上和政治上的阻力。很多费用是由纳税人抗着的，他们为那些精密的高速轨道掏腰包，可是在其上跑的列车运行服务却大多数还是有赚钱的（尽管欧洲之星一直被海峡隧道关联的损失所困扰）。

Then there are the technical difficulties. Brussels has been piling up directives on inter-operability for the past 16 years. Yet apart from a few services such as Eurostar and Thalys, rail travel has remained national, with locomotives and drivers changing at borders and little in the way of through tickets or co-ordinated timetables. Harmonising high-speed train control systems is an expensive nightmare. Eurostar trains have four different power systems for France, Belgium, the Channel Tunnel and the London commuter lines they had to use while waiting for the high-speed link to open.
其次是技术上的难题。布鲁塞尔过去16年里一直就协同工作能力进行论证。然而除了诸如欧洲之星和Thalys等的服务，铁路旅行依然是分国界的，机车和司机在边界要更换，并且很少有通票或者协调的时刻表。将高速列车控制系统协调起来是一个花费颇高令人头痛的事情。在等候高速连接开通的同时，欧洲之星列车针对法国，比利时，海峡隧道以及伦敦等必须使用的车道，拥有四套不同的电力系统。

Another obstacle to change is that governments and trade unions regard railways as providers of stable jobs that are shielded from competition. So there has been much resistance to opening up the market, particularly in France and Germany. The hope is that a grand alliance, and joint ventures under its umbrella, stand more chance of breaking free from old constraints than attempts to strike separate deals on particular routes.
另外一个阻力是政府或者工会认为铁路是没有竞争的，稳定工作的提供者。所以开放市场才会有很多阻力，尤其是在法国和德国。希望在于一个大的联盟，以及其麾下的合资企业，比起试图就特殊线路的达成个别交易拥有更多机会打破旧的紧张气氛。

Vorsprung durch DB
DB（德国铁路股份公司）领导创新（参4）

There is no doubt that Germany’s state-owned railway is at the forefront of Europe’s rail revolution. Hartmut Mehdorn, chief executive of DB, has turned a chronic loss-making railway into a powerful international business which plans to float some 30% of its shares next year. It is already a world-class logistics company, with a global business based on its international rail-freight activity. That could prove to be a useful hedge against greater competition in passenger rail.
不用怀疑德国国有铁路是欧洲铁路革命的先锋力量。德国铁路股份公司的执行官Hartmut Mehdorn（哈特穆特媒栋恩，参5）将一个很长时间都亏损的铁路业变成了一个强有力的跨国企业，明年还计划将其30%的股份出售发行呢。靠着国际列车货运支撑的跨国生意，它已经是一个世界级的物流公司。相对于铁路客运较大的竞争来说，这个有可能是一个有用的保值措施。

DB carries twice as much freight and three times as many passengers as SNCF and owns and operates more than 90% of Germany’s rail network. Over 200 competitors, mostly small firms that bid for franchises to run local services subsidised by regional authorities, run trains on its tracks. But DB still dominates the long-distance and inter-city traffic. Only two rivals compete on long-distance passenger services: Veolia on the Leipzig-Berlin-Rostock route, and Georg Verkehrsorganisation, which runs night trains between Berlin and Malmo in Sweden.
德国铁路股份公司经营的货运量两倍于SNCF（法国国营铁路公司，参6）货运，三倍于其的客运量，并且拥有并经营着超过90%的德国铁路网络。超过200个竞争者在各自的轨道上经营列车，大多数是由各地权力机构赞助的就专营权投标进行本地服务的小型企业。但德国铁路股份公司依旧掌控着长途和城际交通。长途客运方面只有两个对手竞争：经营莱比锡-柏林-罗斯托克线路的Veolia公司和经营柏林到瑞典的Malmo线路的Georg Verkehrsorganisation公司。

State rail firms have the ability to foil smaller rivals and new entrants. One way DB does this is with access to its tracks: InterConnex, owned by Veolia (a French group), fought a losing battle to run a passenger service between Frankfurt and Cologne. It was only offered a track on the right bank of the Rhine, which is winding and subject to delays. Some believe this is why DB will not be allowed to retain full ownership of the rail network in its pending privatisation. But Mr Mehdorn more or less made keeping the tracks a condition for staying when his contract was renewed for three years last month. Britain showed what can go wrong when track and train companies are separated: after the shambolic privatisation of British Rail the network company, Railtrack, collapsed and in effect had to be renationalised. Not surprisingly, there is little appetite to try anything similar on the Continent.
国家铁路企业有能力阻止小的竞争对手和新进入者。DB采用的一种方法是其轨道的接入权：Veolia（一家法国集团）拥有的InterConnex就法兰克福和科隆之间的客运服务争夺战中失败了。提供给它的只是莱茵河右岸的一条弯弯曲曲易于晚点的轨道。有些人认定这就是为什么DB在其未决的私有化过程中，不会被允许持有完全的铁路网络的所有权。但是Mehdorn先生或多或少地把轨道把持作为他的在职的条件，上个月他续了三年的合同。英国方面显示了当轨道和列车公司被拆散后的会发生错误的事情：在英国铁路网络混乱的的私有化后，Railtrack这家铁路网络公司倒闭了并且实际上不得不被重新国有化。毋庸置疑，欧洲大陆是不会有任何想要类似经历的胃口的。

Over at SNCF the debates are different. Guillaume Pepy, SNCF’s managing director, was taken aback when he was recently asked about privatisation. “No politician in France ever suggests privatising SNCF,” he replied. But even if privatisation is not on the agenda in France, that does not mean greater commercialisation has been ruled out. There will be no avoiding it once access to Europe’s passenger lines follows the freight liberalisation that started last January. SNCF’s union-bound freight business is suffering so badly in the new environment that it will probably need rescuing by a partly privatised DB. But both SNCF’s charismatic president, Anne-Marie Idrac, who made her name rejuvenating the Paris Metro, and Mr Pepy are bullish about international high-speed passenger rail: they conceived Railteam.
有关SNCF的争论是不同的。SNCF的常务董事，Guillaume Pepy在被问到有关私有化有些吃惊。“法国没有政客曾经建议过私有化SNCF，”他回答到。但是即使私有化在法国没有列入议事日程，这并不意味着排除了更深层的商业化。一月份货运革命服务后紧接着不可回避的是开放欧洲客运线路。SNCF的工会掌控的货运生意在新环境下举步维艰，所以它很有可能需要一个部分私有化的DB来拯救。但是无论是把自己取名为使巴黎地铁返老还童的有超凡魅力的SNCF主席Anne-Marie Idrac，或是Pepy先生都看好国际高速客运铁路观：他们策划了Railteam。

How successful will the new high-speed lines be at taking business away from airlines? A big shift in passenger numbers would be more likely if airlines had to pay the same taxes that train operators do, namely value-added tax and a tax on fuel, both of which would push up air fares. But despite the resulting price disadvantage, high-speed rail still has many attractions. The added comfort of a train and the ability to walk about, eat in a dining car, work online or use a mobile phone—not to mention the lack of endless queues and security checks—mean that high-speed rail offers a good alternative to flying. Hence the razzmatazz on May 25th when SNCF and DB ran their first high-speed trains from Stuttgart and Frankfurt to Paris, under a joint venture called Alleo, which is part of Railteam.
到底新的高速线路从航空公司抢占生意能有多少成功？乘客数量很有可能会大幅增长，如果航空公司不得不支付和列车经营者同样的税的话，也就是增值税以及燃油税，这两者都会提升飞机票价。但是尽管有因此产生的价格劣势，高速铁路还是有很多吸引人的地方。列车的舒适度增加以及可以在随便走动，在餐车吃饭，在线工作或者使用手机——不要说不需要排很长的队做安全检查——，这些都意味着高速铁路比起坐飞机提供了一个的不错的选择。因此，才有了5月25日SNCF和DB运行他们第一班从斯图尔特和法兰克福到巴黎的高速列车的兴奋，它是由Railteam的一个分支，一个叫做Alleo的合资企业管理的。

There is more to the rivalry between rail and air than the experience in transit, however. Railways must compete in other respects, too. SNCF is justly proud of its airline-style yield management system (originally based on the expertise of Sabre, an offshoot of American Airlines), which fills up seats by pricing them according to demand. This booking-only system enables SNCF to fill over 80% of seats on average.
然而，铁路和航空除了运输的经历外还有更多相竞争的方面。铁路业必须在其他方面也进行竞争。SNCF应为他的航空模式产出管理系统感到骄傲（最初是基于美国航空的一个分支机构Sabre的专门技术），它按照需求填充座位。这个专门订票系统使得SNCF平均上座率超过了80%。

DB tried to introduce a similar system in 2003, but abandoned it because of opposition from politicians and consumer groups. They wanted DB to retain its turn-up-and-pay style of rail travel, which German passengers cherish. Karl-Friedrich Rausch, the head of DB’s passenger business, consoles himself with the thought that although DB does not fill as many of its seats as SNCF, travellers can at least arrive at, say, Frankfurt airport’s shiny new station and be sure that they can get an ICE train every half hour to Stuttgart or Munich without booking. One of the reasons for the German preference for hop-on, hop-off high-speed trains is that stage lengths are shorter than in France, where the population is more spread out, with fewer big towns. One German idea adopted by Railteam is that frequent travellers will be able to board the next train and get a guaranteed seat if they miss a connection because of a delay.
DB 在2003年想引进一个相似的系统，但是由于政客以及消费者群体反对，所以就放弃了。他们要DB保持德国旅客所喜欢的上车付费的铁路旅行方式。DB客运服务负责人，Karl-Friedrich Rausch，安慰自己说尽管DB没有SNCF那样多的上座率，乘客至少可以比如说到法兰克福机场崭新的车站，保证不用订票每半小时他们就可以坐上一辆去斯图尔特或者慕尼黑内燃机列车。德国人喜欢随上随下高速列车的其中第一个原因是站与站的距离要比法国短，法国的人口更分散，大城市更少。Railteam采纳的一个德国的建议是如果经常坐车的旅客因为晚点错过了转车，他们可以坐下一班列车，并且保证有位子。

Mr Rausch, who used to work for Lufthansa, reckons airlines are 15 years ahead of railways in the way they manage their businesses. But he is doing his best to catch up. He is concentrating initially on the improvements to customer service that trains can offer. DB already runs co-ordinated services with Lufthansa that allow travellers to transfer from a plane to a train with a single ticket, for example. Mr Pepy at SNCF reckons that when rail networks are opened up in 2010, airlines such as Lufthansa and Air France-KLM will start operating their own train services. Mr Rausch is more cautious. He thinks open access will take some years to become a reality and that airlines will probably get involved only as partners to train operators.
以前为汉莎航空公司工作的Rausch先生，认为航空业管理他们生意的方式比铁路方面领先15年。但是他尽自己最大努力去赶超。首先他专注于列车客户服务的改善。DB已经在和汉莎航空提供协同服务，比如说允许旅客可以只用一张票，从一班飞机转到一个列车。SNCF的Pepy先生认为当2010年铁路网络开通的时候，航空公司比如，汉莎航空公司，法兰西航空-荷兰航空公司(KLM, Koninklijke Luchtvaart Maatschappij)也将开始经营自己的列车服务。Rausch先生较为保守。他认为开放进入需要花几年时间实现并且航空公司也许只会以列车经营合作伙伴的身份介入。

Whether through competition, co-operation or both, a plethora of European directives such as the “Railway Interoperability Directive” and the “Third Railway Package” will encourage the emergence of this new era of international rail travel. Rail bosses note that on six-hour journeys they are typically winning more than 60% of the leisure market from airlines. The same is happening with business travellers on four-hour journeys. It may be a while before you can choose between a French TGV or a German ICE to ride to Bucharest or even Naples. But as when Lenin sped in his sealed carriage through war-torn Germany 90 years ago, the train of revolution has left the station.
不管是通过竞争，合作抑或是二者兼具，多的过剩的欧洲指令，例如“铁路协同工作指令”和“第三套铁路指令”（参7），将促使国际铁路旅行的新时代的诞生。铁路大亨们注意到对于6个小时旅程他们通常从航空公司赢得了超过60%的休闲旅行市场。对于四个小时商务旅行的商务旅行者也是同样的。也许得一段时间你才可以从法国TGV或者德国的ICE之间选择去布加勒斯特(罗马尼亚的首都)或者甚至是那不勒斯。但是就像列宁90年前坐在他秘藏的车厢里飞驰经过被战争撕碎的德国那样（参8），列车革命已经驶离车站。

Copyright © 2007 The Economist Newspaper and The Economist Group. All rights reserved.

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译注：

1.        欧洲之星 (Eurostar) 是一条连接英国伦敦(滑铁卢火车站)与法国巴黎(北站)、里尔以及比利时布鲁塞尔(南站)的高速铁路服务。这种列车离开伦敦之后便跨越英吉利海峡进入法国，在比、法境内欧洲之星列车与法国TGV和Thalys使用相同的轨道，目前在英国境内正在兴建一段与TGV同样标准的新轨道，这个预计2007年完工的两阶段计划被称为海峡隧道连接铁路(Channel Tunnel Rail Link)。http://zh.wikipedia.org/
2.        大力士高速列车（Thalys，亦译作西北高速列车）是由布鲁塞尔-巴黎的HSL 1线发展而来的一条高速铁路网。它由荷兰的NS，比利时的NMBS，法国的SNCF和德国的DB共同开发而成。在布鲁塞尔和巴黎之间只有一条非Thalys的铁路线，即夜车线。Thalys的票价结构很像航空票：提前越长时间订票且所订的票在改退签方面有严格限制则票价越低，反之越晚订的票且出票规则较灵活的票其票价也较贵。在荷兰，人们只能从几个大站乘坐Thalys(阿姆斯特丹，史基辅，海牙和鹿特丹）。Thalys属于TGV家族，可以在不同的铁路电压下行驶。目前共有10列Thalys PBA火车，从TGV铁路网出发，通行于布鲁塞尔，巴黎和阿姆斯特丹之间。PBA列车可以在1.5千伏直流电压（荷兰和法国（部分地区）），3.0千伏直流电压（比利时）和25千伏直流电压（HSL和法国其他部分）下行驶。另有17种PBKA火车还可以在德国的15千伏交变电压下工作，并且也被用于巴黎-布鲁塞尔-科隆这条线的交通。鲁汶和列日之间的火车则使用新的HSL 2线。http://zh.wikipedia.org/
3.        圣潘卡斯，或者聖邦格拉（St Pancras），大英图书馆，前身是在1753年在伦敦成立的大英博物馆。1857年建成的拱形屋顶阅览室是图书馆建筑史上的杰作。曾在大英图书馆经常借阅书籍的著名读者有：马克思、列宁、查尔斯•狄更斯、弗吉尼亚•伍尔芙等。图书馆的珍贵藏书有：两部在1215年6月英国国王约翰在拉尼米德签署的大宪章、现存的唯一一部裴欧沃夫的原始手稿、两部谷登堡印制的《圣经》（一部是在1454到1455年印制的42行圣经，另一部是在后期印制的36行圣经）、莎士比亚的原本手稿、古老的圣经《西乃抄本》，这些无价的珍贵藏品在大英图书馆中会经常展出。
4.        DB：德国铁路股份公司（德语：Deutsche Bahn AG，缩写：DB AG或DB）由西德的“德国联邦铁路”和东德的“德国国营铁路”在德国统一后合并而成，总部设在柏林。
5.        德国铁路高层领导包括:哈特穆特 媒栋恩Hartmut Mehdorn (1999年12月16日出任主席，1966年—1995年间就职于空中客车，德国宇航中心 Focke-Wulf 从事于航空令领域) http://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%BE%B7%E5%9B%BD%E9%93%81%E8%B7%AF
6.        法国国营铁路公司，请参看：http://www.europerail.cn/rail_in … D-8272-8F19CB4C4DCE
7.        The European Commission adopted a third package of measures in April 2004. This package currently includes three proposals: a Directive on train driver licensing; a Directive on liberalisation of international rail passenger services; and a Regulation on international rail passengers’ rights and obligations. The Package had its second reading in the the European Parliament in January 2007. Final agreement is not expected before Autumn 2007. http://www.rail-reg.gov.uk/server/show/nav.1110
8.        http://www.wst.net.cn/history/4.10/2.htm 1917年4月10日，弗拉基米尔-伊里奇-列宁，这位言辞尖锐的马克思主义者的领袖，回到彼得格勒，他有11年没踏上俄国的土地了。德国人安排了他这次从瑞士返回家乡的旅程，把他秘密藏在一辆火车里，保护这辆火车穿过欧洲战场。德国人以为列宁会使俄国更加不稳定，从而使这个国家就会更容易束手就擒。