好英语网年花费300亿美元的印度铁路系统为何无法阻止惨剧发生
In a country where major industry and political fortunes alike are often tied to a vast, interwoven rail system, India has lavished public resources on new trains, but its purse strings have been much tighter when it comes to ensuring the safety of those already racing along its tracks.
在印度，主要工业和政治命运往往与庞大的、相互交织的铁路系统联系在一起，印度将大量公共资源投入新火车，但是对于已在轨道上运行的列车来说，安全保障资金要紧张得多。
Those decisions loomed large on Sunday in the aftermath of a devastating train wreck that killed at least 275 people in eastern India. Investigators said they were focused on the possibility that signal failure might have led to the three-train crash on Friday, the worst rail wreck in the country in years.
周日，在印度东部发生了一起造成至少275人死亡的惨重火车事故之后，当初的这些决定变得尤为令人关切，这是该国多年来最严重的铁路事故。调查人员表示，他们的侧重点放在信号故障导致周五三列火车相撞的可能性上。
周日，印度三列火车相撞事故现场的工作人员。
The crash, which also injured more than 1,100 people, occurred when a passenger train heading south about 80 miles per hour toward the city of Chennai veered onto the wrong track and hit a parked freight train, the authorities say. The first train’s derailed cars then plowed into a second passenger train that was heading toward it, leaving a scene of carnage.
当局称，事故发生时，一列以每小时128公里的速度向南驶向金奈市的客运列车转向错误的轨道，撞上了一列静止的货车。事故还造成1100多人受伤。第一列火车脱轨的车厢随后撞上了向它驶来的第二列客运列车，造成惨不忍睹的情景。
Over the past years, India has been polishing its long-ramshackle infrastructure as never before, and its railways, which are at the heart of the world’s fifth-largest economy, have been a prime beneficiary. The government spent almost $30 billion on the rail system during the past fiscal year, up 15 percent from the year before.
过去几年里，印度一直在以前所未有的方式改善长期处于破败状态的基础设施，而在世界第五大经济体占据核心地位的印度铁路一直是主要受益者。上一财政年度，政府在铁路系统上花费了近300亿美元，比前一年增加了15%。
But the amount spent on basic track maintenance and other safety measures has been falling. A report last year by India’s auditor general, an independent office, found that less money was being allocated for track renewal work and that officials had not even spent the full amount set aside.
但用于基本轨道维护和其他安全措施的费用却一直在下降。印度审计署（一个独立机构）去年的报告发现，分配给线路养护维修工作的资金减少了，官员们甚至没有花完预留的全部资金。
With more than 20 million passengers riding the rails of India every day, many of them migrant workers, a politician cannot go wrong by showering money on the system, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi has done just that, with no little fanfare. The budget for the train system, one of the largest in the world, is five times as much this year than when he took office.
印度每天有超过2000万乘客乘坐铁路，其中许多是外来务工人员，政治人士在铁路系统上投入大量资金是不会错的，总理纳伦德拉·莫迪正是这么做的，而且不惜大张旗鼓。今年，印度铁路——世界上最大的铁路系统之一——得到的预算是他上任时的五倍。
But most of Mr. Modi’s initiatives have been aimed not at the basic steps needed to get trains from Point A to Point B without mishap, but at improving speed and comfort. He regularly extols higher-fare new electric Vande Bharat trains connecting bigger cities and has made an early priority of a Japanese-style bullet train, though it can do nothing to improve the lives of the country’s ordinary passengers.
但莫迪的大部分举措都不是针对列车从一处顺利运行到另一处所需的基本步骤，而是为了提高速度和舒适度。他经常称赞连接大城市、票价更高的新型Vande Bharat电动列车，还将一个采用日本新干线技术建造的高速铁路项目列为优先，尽管它对改善印度普通乘客的生活毫无帮助。
The government says the investment is part of an effort to elevate the experience of riding India’s railways to a world-class standard and to attract investment from abroad.
印度政府称，这项投资是为了有助于将乘坐印度铁路的体验提升到世界级水平，并吸引海外投资。
Spending on programs dedicated to safety improvements for India’s fleet of more than 13,000 older trains has been shrinking, however, as a portion of the total and even in absolute terms, according to the most recently published budgets.
然而，根据最近公布的预算，用于改善印度逾1.3万列老旧列车安全的项目支出在总支出中所占的比例一直在下降，甚至连绝对值也在下降。
Partha Mukhopadhyay, a senior fellow at the Center for Policy Research, a organization in New Delhi, cited one need in particular. “The signaling function could perhaps do with more attention,” he said. “Strategically, signaling is a soft-capacity addition, and as we move to higher-speed trains, it will become more important.”
新德里政策研究中心高级研究员帕塔·穆霍帕迪耶特别提到了一个需求。“信号功能可能需要更多的关注，”他说。“从战略上讲，信号是一种软能力的补充，随着我们转向速度更高的列车，信号将变得更加重要。”
As devastating as the crash on Friday has been, rail travel in India is far safer than ever.
尽管周五的撞车事故伤亡惨重，印度的铁路旅行仍然比以往任何时候都要安全得多。
Derailments were once frequent, with an average of 475 per year from 1980 to about the turn of the century. In the decade leading to 2021, that number dropped to just over 50, according to a paper railway officials presented at the World Congress on Disaster Management.
在这个国家，脱轨事故一度相当频繁，从1980年到世纪之交，平均每年发生475起。根据铁路官员在世界灾害管理大会上提交的文件，在2021年之前的十年里，这一数字下降到仅50多起。
Rail safety in India, more generally, has also improved, with the number of serious train accidents dropping steadily: to 22 in the 2020 fiscal year from more than 300 annually two decades ago. By 2020, for two years in a row, India had recorded no passenger deaths in rail accidents — a milestone hailed by the Modi government. Until 2017, more than 100 passengers were killed every year.
印度的铁路安全也得到更为广泛的改善，严重事故的数量稳步下降：从20年前的每年300多起降至2020财年的22起。到2020年，印度已经连续两年没有乘客死于铁路事故，这是莫迪政府欢庆的一个里程碑。直到2017年，印度每年都有100多名乘客遇难。
Under Mr. Modi, India has been on a spending spree, with its Finance Ministry and the World Bank hoping that private companies will follow the government’s lead and pour more money into the economy. The World Bank noted in a report in April that India’s rate of government spending toward long-term goals “has increased relative to the prepandemic level.” Transportation, including the railroads, plays a major part in that spending surge.
在莫迪的领导下，印度一直在大举支出，印度财政部和世界银行希望私营企业能跟进政府的做法，向经济注入更多资金。世界银行在4月的一份报告中指出，印度政府在实现长期目标方面的支出“相对于疫情前的水平有所增加”。包括铁路在内的交通运输在该支出的激增中扮演重要角色。
“In the 21st century, for rapid development of the country, growth and reform of railways is essential,” Mr. Modi said at the dedication of a train line last year. ”A nationwide campaign is underway to transform railways.”
“在21世纪，为了国家的快速发展，铁路的增长和改革至关重要，”去年，莫迪在一条铁路线的落成典礼上说。“一场全国范围的铁路改造运动正在进行中。”
Auguste Tano Kouamé, the World Bank’s country director for India, said the high rate of public spending on power distribution, new highways and the railroads would “crowd in” more spending by companies in pursuit of long-term gains.
世界银行负责印度的主管奥古斯特·塔诺·夸梅表示，配电、新建高速公路和铁路方面的高额公共支出将“吸引”追求长期收益的企业增加支出。
Three months ago, intent on promoting homegrown safety technology, India’s railway minister, Ashwini Vaishnaw, made a show of placing himself and the chairman of the Railway Board on two trains on a collision course. The idea was to demonstrate the new system, called Kavach, or armor.
三个月前，为推广本土的安全技术，印度铁道部长阿什维尼·瓦伊什瑙播放了这样一段视频——他自己和铁路局主席坐在两列即将相撞的火车上。这是为了展示名为“卡瓦奇”，意为“铠甲”的新系统。
The two trains sped toward each other on a single track. At a distance of 400 meters — about 440 yards — the new system applied the brakes automatically.
两列火车在一条轨道上快速相向而行。相距400米时，新系统自动实施刹车。
But the Kavach system has been installed on only a tiny fraction of India’s trains, covering about 900 miles of the total route, more than 40,000 miles. It was not used by the trains that crashed on Friday, and one opposition politician, Mamata Banerjee, a former railway minister, seized on that.
但卡瓦奇系统只安装在印度的一小部分火车上，在约合6.4万公里的铁路总里程中，仅覆盖了1448公里左右。周五发生撞车事故的列车并没有使用该系统，反对派政治人物、前铁道部长马马塔·班纳吉抓住了这一点。
“Had the device been on the train, this would not have happened,” she told reporters.
“如果火车上有这个装置，就不会发生这种事，”她告诉记者。
Mr. Vaishnaw, the railway minister — whose resignation has already been demanded in some quarters — rejected the suggestion.
铁道部长瓦伊什瑙——一些人已经要求他辞职——驳斥了这一看法。
“This accident is not about the collision-avoidance system,” he said.
“这起事故与防撞系统无关，”他说。