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今天的文章依旧来自Monocle，关于英国铁路系统的事情。

SLOW TRAIN TO NOWHERE
— Wiltshire, UK

By David Plaisant, an associate producer for Monocle 24.
Monocle


Preface
Britain clings to（坚持，抓紧，保留） the idea of romantic train travel, even as the tracks crumble（崩溃） into the sea. David Plaisant is feeling decidedly（显然的，坚决的） unsentimental（理智的，不懂感情的） after an epic journey to the West Country.


11 February 2014


As I waited for a delayed train that would take me to a station where I would then take a rail replacement coach（车厢） to another station that was still far from my end destination（用的是end~） I had plenty of opportunity to ponder on（ponder on，思考） the noble - if totally ineffective - British railways. Last week was a roller-coaster week for UK infrastructure（基础设施） and you’ll have to forgive the clichéd turn of phrase（turn of phrase，措辞的意思。估计就是说前一句用roller-coaster形容是个老套的形容方法，所以说 cliched turn of phrase）. There were ups, there were downs – and that’s if there was any service at all. But the roller-coaster reference does not stop there, Britain watched as bad weather turned into calamitous（多灾多难的，calamity是灾难的意思） structural failures on the coastal railway linking England’s southwest peninsula to the rest of the country（这一句的谓语是watch）. The railway line literally fell into the sea.


Bad weather happens, you might say, and given the crashing waves（crashing这个词不错，汹涌的海浪） and weeks of driving rain（driving rain，固定用法，倾盆大雨）, damage like this might be expected. However, should it be expected that towns and cities of a whole region might instantly be cut off（切断、中断。此处翻译成与世隔绝） for months? The journey to Plymouth, a sizable（相当大的，这种词是不是只在英国用 = =） city on the way to beautiful, rugged（崎岖的） Cornwall, is a fraught（担心的、忧虑的） one at the best of times. A car journey from London can take more than four hours on substandard（不符合规定的） choked（堵塞的） highways. The journey by train is usually more comfortable and involves the train tracks hugging the coast – the blue English Channel splashing（溅） just a few feet below wheels of the carriage, ravishing（令人陶醉的，引人入胜的。Thor 2里Loki那句，Mumm~ Brother, you look ravishing~ 让我看一次乐一次） sea views, Idyllic（田园牧歌般的，idyl是田园诗的意思。） and genteel（有教养的，文雅的，上流社会的。这种词我估计在美国作品里相当罕见 = =）, like so much of Britain’s infrastructure. This particular line was built by the great engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel（伊桑巴德·金德姆·布鲁内尔，英国著名工程师） himself in the 1850s.


When it comes to connecting cities and providing a 21st-century transport system – genteel, should not be the only option (and now even that option has fallen away). From Paris to Brest and from Rome to Trieste, Western European governments have been busying themselves connecting their far-flung（遥远的，辽阔的，fling是挥动的意思） regions with high-speed networks. Meanwhile, support for Britain’s proposed link between London and Birmingham (yes its second city) is sluggish（萧条的，迟钝的） to non existent. Britain lives and breathes an old-world attitude to its railways and this is even seen in the current spate（铲子） of advertising inspired solely by nostalgia. Wooded hills and country steeples（尖塔，包括教堂那种尖尖的顶部） beckon visitors with station posters. Double, or at most, triple-carriage trains (which strangely seem to lack a front or back locomotive) are pictured bumbling（装模做样的，爱管闲事的。bumble是发出嗡嗡声） across a patchwork（大杂烩，patch work分来理解再拼起来理解就OK啦） of uninhabited regions of green.


Last week brought some good news for the transport industry with the announcement that all rolling stock for London’s new Crossrail rapid transit system will be made in the UK at Derby, by Canadian firm Bombardier. And this country is reacquiring the will and enthusiasm for much needed big infrastructure. However, investment is occurring only after an unfathomably（深不可测的，fathom是测量的意思，Mariah Carey的We Belong Together里唱的"I could not fathom I would ever be without your love"） slow bureaucratic（官僚主义的） process that is entirely centered around those who own affected property. Rightly so – say so many Britons wearing this maxi-consultation culture as a badge of honour. It's democratic but slow, and the longer the British stoically（坚忍地，stoic是禁欲主义、坚忍苦修的意思） languish（憔悴、潦倒） with their archaic（古色古香的） railways of strange shiny carriages that roll on rather shaky Victorian lines, the more deprived and less competitive will its far flung regions be. （最后一句是the more the more 的句式。）