China has halted the production of some bullet trains, the first public action to show that Beijing has slowed its ambitious high-speed rail programme after a fatal collision last month.

　　中国已下令停产一部分高速列车，这是上月发生动车致命追尾事故后，首个显示北京方面放缓其雄心勃勃的高铁计划的公开行动。

　　The railway ministry ordered China North Locomotive and Rolling Stock (CNR), one of the country’s two leading train manufacturers, to temporarily stop making a bullet train model because of recurrent delays on a new line between Shanghai and Beijing.

　　铁道部责令中国两大铁路车辆制造商之一中国北车(CNR)暂停制造一种型号的高速列车，原因是该型列车在新建的京沪高铁运行期间频频延误。

　　In a statement to the Shanghai stock exchange, the state-owned company said that an automatic safety system on its CRH380, the most advanced of China’s high-speed trains, had been working improperly, leading to delays.

　　这家国有公司在提交给上海证交所的一份公告中称，其CRH380 BL型动车组存在由于自动保护系统误报而导致列车延误的情况。CRH380是中国最先进的高速列车型号。

　　The high-speed line between Shanghai and Beijing was supposed to be the jewel in the crown of the country’s bullet train network, but it has been beset by stoppages since opening in June.

　　京沪高铁本应成为中国高铁网络皇冠上的明珠，但这条线路自6月投入运行以来不断受到故障停车困扰。

　　Passenger frustration at the unreliable service snowballed into a far deeper crisis of confidence for China’s railway planners when high-speed trains on a line near the eastern city of Wenzhou crashed into each other on July 23, killing 40 people.

　　7月23日，两列动车在华东城市温州附近的铁路上发生追尾碰撞，导致40人丧生。这起事故使乘客对高铁不可靠服务不断蓄攒的不满爆发，造成一场更加深层次的对中国铁路规划者的信心危机。

　　CNR did not mention that accident, which involved a slightly older model of bullet trains, in its statement about the manufacturing halt.

　　中国北车在有关停产的公告中并未提及那起事故；7月23日的追尾事故涉及型号较早的动车。

　　The company said that it would examine and adjust its bullet trains to ensure “efficiency and punctuality”, and added that it expected it would still be able to complete the full amount ordered for this year.

　　该公司表示，将尽快完成其高速列车的质量整改工作，以保障京沪高铁的“高效、准点运行”，并补充称，预期将仍然能够完成年度合同交付总量。

　　China’s bullet trains only went into operation in 2007, but a surge in investment since then has allowed the government to build the world’s largest high-speed rail network. It had planned to expand total line length to 16,000km by 2020, more than five-times that of Japan’s Shinkansen system.

　　中国的动车于2007年才刚刚投入运行，但自那以来投资激增，使中国政府得以建成全球最大的高铁网络。按原定规划，到2020年中国高铁网络总长将增至1.6万公里，为日本新干线的5倍多。

　　Although the government has yet to officially scale back its plans, rail investment data suggest that it has begun to hit the brakes. Spending on railways contracted 2.1 per cent in the first seven months of the year from the same period a year earlier, following a 7 per cent increase in the first half.

　　虽然中国政府尚未正式缩减高铁建设规划，但铁路投资数据似乎表明，中国已开始在该领域踩刹车。今年头7个月，铁路建设支出同比减少2.1%，而今年上半年的数据同比增加7%。

　　Coupled with concerns about the safety of China’s bullet trains, there have been allegations of widespread corruption in the railway ministry, with a series of senior officials, including the former minister, placed under investigation for disciplinary violations.

　　除了中国高速列车的安全令人担忧外，铁道部还被指存在大面积腐败，包括前部长在内的多名高官正因违纪而接受调查。

　　China’s trains have also racked up a fast-growing mountain of debt. The railway ministry’s liabilities have tripled in three years to hit Rmb2,091bn ($326bn). Concerns about its level of indebtedness helped push up the annual coupon rate on 90-day commercial paper it issued this week to 5.55 per cent, 163 basis points higher than an issue of the same maturity earlier this year.

　　中国铁路部门也背上了快速增长的债务负担。铁道部的债务在3年内增长两倍，达到2.091万亿元人民币（合3260亿美元）。市场对其负债程度的担心，促使铁道部本周发行的90天期融资券中标利率达到5.55%，较铁道部今年早些时候发行的同期限融资券高出163个基点。