作者：Russell Flannery  

面对高铁追尾，外国友人说道：“让铁路成为资产而不是争议。”

（艾莉西亚·威梅尔是福布斯在中国的一名暑期实习生，近来都在乘坐中国的铁路系统四处奔走，帮助充实即将推出的2011年福布斯中国富豪榜的细节。在上周六晚浙江省的动车追尾事故导致35名乘客死亡之后，她写下了以下自己关于中国高速铁路网的感想。）

中国的高铁最近因为延误和技术问题收到了很多的负面报道。周六，它迎来了最黑暗的一天，一场可怕的事故夺去了将近36名乘客的生命。但至少在周四，当我乘坐从北京到上海的高铁列车时，我没有感觉到自己乘坐列车受到多大争议，大多数乘客看起来都相当满意。

我搭乘的列车于早上7点从北京出发，下午12点30分前恰好抵达上海虹桥站，其中只停留了几站。坐在我旁边的是一个来自南京的20岁学生，他刚在北京待了一周回来。他也听说了动车的事故，但不觉得那很严重。他更关心的是高铁的速度。当我们达到最大时速——每小时310公里时，他拍下了车中显示车速的电子屏的照片。他还在登上火车前拍下了他那张车票的照片，一同存储在他相机中的照片还有紫禁城、北京大学西门等著名旅游胜地。

高铁总体上比较愉快，一路上大部分时间都很安静，不管是火车还是乘客都没有很大的声音。它绝对和其他大多数中国列车不同：当我走过车厢四处看看的时候，我注意到了很多笔记本和iPad。每列车厢之间都有自动滑动门。餐车非常干净，不像我在中国其他一些火车上看到的那些。我叫了一份宫保鸡丁，另一位排在我后面的外籍人士想要一份意大利面，但很可惜没有，尽管有些时候似乎是有的。

我对此次高铁之旅的感受总体上来说是比较顺畅。而中国整体铁路系统的可靠性有着额外的吸引力。我从黄山（我今天写作的地方）出发的航班已经被第二次取消了。连接中国两个最重要城市之间的运转良好的高速铁路有着巨大的潜在价值。让我们希望这些问题能得到解决，让铁路可以变成资产而不是争议。

China’s High-Speed Rail Has At Least One Hopeful Rider
Jul. 25 2011 - 7:01 am
By RUSSELL FLANNERY

Image via Wikipedia
(Alicia Wittmeyer, a Forbes summer intern in China, has been riding the rails of the country’s train system of late, helping to flesh out candidates for our upcoming 2011 Forbes China Rich List.   She filed these thoughts about China’s high-speed network after a collision in Zhejiang Province on Saturday night killed 35 passengers.)

China’s high-speed rail has gotten a lot of bad press from delays and technical problems. On Saturday, it suffered its worst day yet, after a horrible accident left nearly three dozen passengers dead.  But on Thursday, at least, when I took the train up from Beijing to Shanghai, there weren’t any signs that I was riding a particularly controversial train, and most people on board seemed happy to be there.

My train left Beijing at 7 a.m. and got into Shanghai Hongqiao station just before 12:30 p.m., with a few stops in between. I sat next to a 20-year-old student from Nanjing who’d traveled to Beijing for a week.  He’d heard about the problems with the high-speed rail, but didn’t think they were very serious. He was much more interested in the speed of the train. As we approached our top speed of just over 310 kph, he snapped a few pictures of an electronic sign posted in every car that tells you how fast you’re going. He’d also taken a picture of his ticket before boarding, which was stored in his camera next to pictures of the Forbidden City, Peking University West Gate, and other famous tourist attractions.

The train is generally pleasant. It was pretty quiet most of the way, both in terms of noise from  the train itself, and noise from the passengers on board. It definitely has a different feel to it than many other Chinese trains: As I walked through the cars to have a look around, I noticed a lot of laptops and iPads out. There are automatic sliding glass doors between each car. The canteen car was clean, unlike the canteen cars on some other Chinese trains I’ve been on. I ordered a gong bao ji ding (“governor’s chicken”); a foreigner in line behind me tried to order spaghetti, with no luck, although it sounded like it’s available on some days.

My experience with the high-speed rail was overall, a smooth ride. And the general reliability of trains in China is extra-attractive.  My flight out of Huangshan, where I’m writing from today,  has been cancelled for the second day in a row. The potential value of a well-functioning high-speed connection between China’s two most important cities is huge. Let’s hope that the problems can be worked out so that the rail route can become an asset instead of a controversy.