A train crash that killed at least 39 people has raised fresh questions about China’s high-speed rail ambitions and will lend support to critics calling for more investment in conventional, slower technology.

　　一起至少造成39人死亡的列车相撞事故，让人们对中国的高铁梦提出了新的质疑，也为呼吁把更多资金投向速度较慢的常规铁路技术的批评者提供了论据。

　　Another 210 people were injured in the first serious accident involving Chinese bullet trains. It happened when one train hurtled into another that had stalled near the city of Wenzhou, south of Shanghai.

　　这是中国动车组列车的首起严重事故，它还造成210名乘客受伤。事故发生时，一辆列车飞速撞向另一辆停驶在温州市附近的列车。

　　The government embarked on a massive spending drive five years ago to build the world’s largest high-speed rail network in record time. But what was meant as a source of national pride and efficiency has instead become one of embarrassment and concern.

　　中国政府5年前开始大举投资，希望在创纪录的短时间内建成全世界最大的高速铁路网络。修建高铁本意在于激发民族自豪感并提升效率，但现在却变成了一件令人难堪和忧虑的事情。

　　Saturday’s accident, which tossed six train carriages off the tracks in a pile of twisted metal, was the latest and most devastating setback for China’s rail programme.

　　在上周六发生的这起事故中，有6节车厢被撞出铁轨，变成一堆扭曲的废铁。这是中国铁路发展计划遭遇的最新的，也是破坏性最大的一起挫败。

　　The fatal collision stemmed from extraordinary circumstances, according to state television. Lightning struck the first train, knocking out an electronic warning system that would have prevented the other train from hitting it. But the power loss was eerily similar to failures that have halted trains on the Beijing-Shanghai line at least three times since it opened less than a month ago.

　　官方电视台称，这起致命撞车事件是因极其特殊的情况而起：闪电击中了首列列车，摧毁了电子预警系统，而这个预警系统本可以阻止第二辆列车冲向它。但是，这起事故中出现的停电现象，却与京沪高铁上导致列车停驶的故障情况诡异地相似。京沪高铁运行尚不足一个月，就已经发生过3起与之类似的事故。

　　In the past six months, the railways minister has been dismissed for “serious disciplinary violations” and his replacement has announced a big reduction of top speeds following safety concerns, while a new line between Beijing and Shanghai has been beset by stoppages.

　　过去半年中，原铁道部长刘志军因“严重违纪”而被免职。新任铁道部长盛光祖出于安全方面的顾虑，宣布大幅调低高铁列车运行的最高速度。而新建成的京沪高铁已多次受到停驶困扰。

　　This year, Sheng Guangzu, the new railways minister, vowed to stick to a blueprint to expand the country’s track network to 120,000km by 2015 from the current 91,000km. But a smaller expenditure target implied that Beijing was decreasing the portion of the newly-built lines that would be high speed. The crash will have reinforced the scaling back of these ambitions.

　　盛光祖承诺，今年，铁道部将坚持执行到2015年把全国铁路运营里程从目前的9.1万公里增加到12万公里的计划。但投资目标金额被下调，这说明北京方面计划降低高铁在新建铁路中所占的比例。此次撞车事故应该会促使高铁梦进一步降格。

　　Debt has become another indication that all is not well in China’s bullet train build-out. The railway ministry’s liabilities have tripled in two years to hit Rmb1,980bn ($307bn), state media reported last week. Although it is easily within the government’s capacity to repay, the ministry had been expected to fund itself largely through cash flow, and the debt is an indication of investment gone awry.

　　而铁道部的债务情况也反映出，中国扩建高速列车线路的进程不太顺利。官方媒体上周报道，铁道部的债务在两年间增加了两倍，达到1.98万亿元人民币（合3070亿美元）。虽然中国政府有充足财力偿还这些债务，但铁道部原本应该依靠自身的现金流来为铁路建设融资，现在的债务情况说明投资出现了问题。

　　That is no surprise to Zhao Jian, a professor at Northern Transport University and an outspoken -opponent of the high-speed rail plans. He has argued that ultra-fast trains make sense between large cities that are relatively close to each other. However, the cost of building high-speed lines over vast distances, where air travel is a better option “will become a serious drag on economic development”, he said in a recent essay.

　　北京交通大学(Beijing Jiaotong University)教授赵坚对高铁计划一直公开持批评态度。上述债务情况在他看来并不意外。他在最近发表的一篇文章中表示，在相距较近的大城市间修建超高速铁路尚属合理，但如果要在相距很远、更适合搭乘飞机往来的城市间修建高铁，其建设成本将会“严重拖累经济发展”。

　　One of the trains in the collision was exactly the kind that Mr Zhao has criticised. From Beijing to Fuzhou, the capital of Fujian province, train D301 was supposed to cover 2,223km in less than 14 hours.

　　上周六相撞的两列动车中，有一列恰恰行驶在赵坚所批评的那种路线上，它就是从北京出发开往福建省会福州的D301次动车，全程行驶里程2223公里，计划行驶时间不到14个小时。

　　The answer is not for China to pare back its spending on railways, but to direct it more sensibly, analysts say. The Chinese rail system carries about a quarter of global freight and passenger traffic on 6 percent of the world’s lines. The density of its network, measured in line distance per inhabitant, is about a tenth of that in the US, a seventh of the European Union’s and a third of Japan’s, according to the World Bank.

　　分析人士指出，解决办法并不是要求中国削减铁路建设开支，而是引导它更理智地投资。中国铁路系统用占世界6%的里程数承载着占世界四分之一的货物和乘客运量。世界银行(World Bank)数据显示，按人均铁路里程衡量，中国铁路网的密度相当于美国的十分之一、欧盟的七分之一、日本的三分之一。

　　 It would be better to build conventional, high-capacity lines than fast trains that carry fewer people and cost more, Mr Zhao said.

　　赵坚说，与其建设运载乘客更少、耗资更多的高速铁路，不如建设运载能力高的常规铁路。

　　 But China had also been hoping to transform its bullet trains into a large export, the sort of sophisticated product that it wants to sell to the world as it graduates from being a low-cost manufacturer.

　　然而，中国一直希望把高速列车变成一个大规模出口产品。在中国逐步摆脱低成本制造国身份之际，高速列车正是它希望销往全世界的那类先进产品。

　　This month, Beijing trumpeted that Malaysia would buy 228 trains, the first export deal for Chinese-made bullet trains. China’s CSR Corp has also signed a deal with General Electric to make trains for high-speed lines in the US.

　　本月，北京方面高调宣布马来西亚将从中国进口228辆动车，这是中国制造的动车组的首宗出口交易。中国南车(CSR Corp)也已与通用电气(General Electric)签署协议，为美国高铁线路制造列车。

　　Even before the crash, the Chinese export plans were running into trouble from Japan’s Kawasaki Heavy Industries, which said it would take action if China filed for patents on trains using Japanese technology.

　　在这次撞车事故发生之前，中国的动车出口计划就遭遇了麻烦——日本川崎重工(Kawasaki Heavy Industries)表示，如果中国对使用日本技术制造的列车申报专利，它便会采取相应行动。

　　Of the trains that collided on Saturday, one was based on a Kawasaki design and the other was based on a model by Canada’s Bombardier. Chinese railway officials previously said they had “digested” the foreign technology and then reinnovated to create their own intellectual property.

　　上周六相撞的两列动车中，其中一列是在川崎重工的设计基础上制造的，另一列是在加拿大庞巴迪(Bombardier)的设计基础上制造的。中国铁路官员过去曾表示，中国在“消化了”外国技术后进行了再创新，创造出了自主知识产权。