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Transport in the north-east
东北部交通
Track changes
轨道变化
The north-east is being hobbled by lousy transport
交通不便，蹒跚而行的东北部
MOST advertisements on public transport attempt to sell something. Travellers on the London Underground, for example, sit under posters for dating websites, vitamin supplements and insurance policies. On the two-carriage train between Sunderland and Darlington in the north-east of England, only one advert catches the eye. It is from the rail company, apparently apologising for the state the train is in.
大多数公共交通上的广告都试图向乘客们售卖出什么东西。举个例子，伦敦地铁上的乘客，就坐在诸如交友网站，维他命补充剂，保险单等等宣传海报的下面。在英国东北部往返于桑德兰和达灵顿的二节火车里，仅有一种广告占据了人们的视线，这个广告来自于一家铁路公司，很明显是在为这火车所在的国家而道歉。
The north-east's railway network is creaking. Two or three-car “Pacers”—cheaply-made carriages based on old buses—judder along large parts of the network. It can take an hour and a half to get from Middlesbrough to Newcastle, a distance of only 40 miles. A train journey between Chelmsford in Essex and London, the same distance, takes 36 minutes. Trains from rich suburbs are less frequent and are often delayed. “You could walk faster,” complains David Budd, the deputy mayor of Middlesbrough.
东北部的铁路网正在日益老化。两或三节车厢的“步行者”—根据老巴士改造的廉价车厢—在大片的铁路网上颤颤巍巍地运行着。从相距仅40英里的米德尔斯堡到纽卡斯尔大概要花一个半小时，而从同样距离的艾塞克斯的切姆斯福德到伦敦，搭乘火车仅需36分钟。从富裕郊区发出的列车班次更少，并且经常晚点。“走路还快一些。”米德尔斯堡的副市长大卫·巴德这样抱怨道。
This is crippling labour mobility in England's poorest region. The north-east was long dependent on heavy industry and has struggled with deindustrialisation. Unemployment in Middlesbrough, at 15%, is twice the national average (see map). But because the north-east is so hard to get around, companies must recruit locally, says Paul Callaghan, chairman of the Leighton Group, a technology firm just outside Sunderland. The south-east's excellent transport links enable people to travel much more easily.
这给英格兰最贫困地区的劳动力流动问题造成了严重后果。东北部长期依赖于重工业并在限制工业化中苦苦挣扎。米德尔斯堡的失业率高达15%，是国家平均值的两倍（如图）。但是正因为东北部交通非常不便，公司必须在本地招聘职员，保罗·卡拉翰如是认为，他是一家名为雷顿集团的技术公司的总裁，该公司位于桑德兰附近。东南部卓越的交通运输则让人们的通行更加便利。
History is partly to blame. Newcastle aside, many towns in the north-east were self-contained and oriented around mines: few people needed to travel far. Railways mostly carried coal and steel, and when those industries declined they were cut back. Even new jobs were often isolated in suburban industrial parks. What little investment there was in transport tended to reinforce older north-south links rather than create new east-west ones.
历史原因要为此窘境承担一部分责任 。除了纽卡斯尔，东北部许多城市都自给自足，被矿山包围：很少有人需要出远门。铁路大多被用来运输煤和钢铁，当这些工业衰落后它们的运输量也削减了。即使是新工作也仅局限在郊区工业园内。该地区有限的投资也是放在了加强南北交通枢纽上，而不是建造新的东西向线路。
Local government squabbling has not helped matters. “There's an antipathy between Newcastle and Sunderland—and not just about football,” says Ray Hudson of Durham University. In metropolitan Manchester, local authorities have ganged up to lobby for investment. The north-east has failed to present a united front. Partly as a result, public expenditure on transport infrastructure projects is ￡2,595 ($4,340) per head in London but only ￡5 in the north-east, according to IPPR North, a think-tank.
地方政府间的争吵也不利于事态发展。“纽卡斯尔和桑德兰间的互相反感并不仅限于足球。”杜伦大学的雷·哈德森说。在大都市曼彻斯特，地方政府们团结合作来争取投资。而东北部并没形成统一战线。这在一定程度上造成了如下结果：根据著名智库北方公共政策研究所（IPPR）的研究，在交通基本建设工程上，伦敦的市政开支是平均每人2,595英镑 (4,340美元)，而在东北部平均每人仅5英镑。
Britain's proposed high-speed railway will not help much, and not for a long time. Under current plans HS2 will take until 2033 to reach the north-east, some seven years after it stretches to the West Midlands. Even then many are worried: Edward Twiddy, leader of the North East Local Enterprise Partnership, fears that journeys to Leeds in Yorkshire will become longer and that investment will be drawn away from the East Coast mainline.
英国所提议的高速铁路不会有太大帮助，也不是长久之计。在现有的计划下，HS2高速铁路项目直到2033年才能建设到东北部，比到达西米德兰兹郡要晚约七年。即使到那时候，人们还是忧心忡忡：东北地方企业合作团的领导人爱德华·图迪担心去约克郡利兹市的路程将会更漫长，东海岸沿线的投资也将会被撤走。
Smaller, incremental projects would help more. Railway tracks are being electrified in the north-west, but only as far as York. Unless parts of the north-east are electrified too, areas like Middlesbrough risk being cut off even more than at present. Better rolling-stock would get more people on trains. If another platform were added to Darlington station—a pretty, if sparse, Victorian structure—then congestion on the line to London would be reduced, as local and freight services would no longer need to cross the main tracks.
规模小一些，逐渐递进的项目帮助会更大。西北部的铁路正在实现电气化，但最远也只推行到了约克。除非部分东北部地区也实现电气化，否则像米德尔斯堡这样的地区将冒着比现在更与世隔绝的风险。更好的铁路运行会带来更多乘客。如果达灵顿车站能多设一个站台—一个漂亮的，如果空间够宽敞的话，维多利亚式的建筑，那么去往伦敦沿线的拥堵状况将得到缓解，因为地方和货运服务将没必要再通过主要的铁路干线。
Such projects are less exciting than a whizzy new railway. Government officials tend to glaze over when they are mentioned, says Ed Cox of IPPR North. A more integrated approach to transport planning would help. This is slowly starting to happen: from April 1st seven local authorities in the north-east will hive off some functions to a combined authority, similar to the set-up in Manchester. This should give the north-east a stronger voice. When two northern rail franchises come up for renewal in 2016 local authorities will play a larger part in the bidding process.
这样的项目没有建设一个新的高技术铁路那样激动人心。当这些项目被提及时，政府官员往往提不起半点兴趣。北方公共政策研究所的爱德·科克斯如是说。更综合一些的交通运输计划会有帮助。这正在慢慢地实现：从4月1日开始东北部的七个地方政府将会分离一部分职能来组成一个联合机构，类似于曼彻斯特的组织。这将使东北部更具有发言权。当2016年两个北方铁路专营权更新时，当地政府在投标过程中的地位将更重要。
In many ways the region is lagging 20 years behind everywhere else, thinks Penny Marshall, the regional director of the Institution of Civil Engineers in the north-east. Though car ownership per head is low, it is catching up with the national average. The shabbiness of public transport is pushing people onto crowded roads. “It would be nice to get it right before it gets worse,” she says.
在很多方面该地区都比其它任何地方落后20年，佩妮·马歇尔认为，她是土木工程师协会在东北地区的区域主管。尽管人均拥有的汽车数量低，但也正在赶上国家平均数目。公共交通的简陋使得人们不得不涌入拥挤的道路。“如果能在情况变得更糟前让它恢复正常就好了。“她说。译者：王颖 校对：邵夏沁
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