日韩精品久久一区二区三区_亚洲色图p_亚洲综合在线最大成人_国产中出在线观看_日韩免费_亚洲综合在线一区

 
 
 

當前位置: Language Tips> 新聞播報

A Chinese lesson for the birthplace of rail

中國日報網 2016-11-10 17:10

 

A Chinese lesson for the birthplace of rail

Get Flash Player

Exciting news emerged last week from the world's largest train manufacturer, especially for those of us who love to travel at high speed.

China Railway Rolling Stock Corp (whose parent CRRC Group is State-owned) is looking to develop a "maglev" train that will be capable of traveling at up to 600 km per hour twice as fast as the best bullet trains currently in operation.

Now, this is only an announcement and no doubt it will be some time before we see trains able to travel at half the speed of sound.

But the news got me thinking, all the same, about the dire state of rail transport in my home country.

Britain is known as the birthplace of the railways - in fact, it has one of the densest rail networks in the world.

Yet little has been done to improve or upgrade this network in decades, and much of the current rolling stock is outmoded and decrepit.

The root cause of this is the idiotic system employed by the UK, and almost nowhere else, to run the railways - something called franchising.

In a nutshell, this sees private operating companies "bid" for the rights to run rail franchises so that they can siphon off millions of pounds in profit for their shareholders, all the while being paid a subsidy by the government, which amounted to almost $5 billion between 2007 and 2011.

In the UK, our current leaders are obsessed with privatization - throwing everything they can to the wolves of the free market.

The people become inured to it, sold the lie that this system is cheaper and more efficient.

Yet the truth is, private companies perfectly adapted, as they are, for making profit can only do so much good when it comes to providing services from which little money can be wrung out.

Columnists for the likes of Bloomberg have decried China's investment in its rail network as unwise, given the heavy burden of debt it entails and the inherent difficulties in turning a profit.

True enough, going by the information that is publicly available, it would seem that State-owned China Railways Corporation only makes serious money from one line it operates the massively popular Beijing-Shanghai route.

But why should everything be boiled down to profitability?

Surely, this is the very reason for the existence of a public sector - to provide the services that, otherwise, the market would not.

Unfortunately, in Britain, nationalization is still a dirty word - the UK's left-leaning Labour Party even felt forced to scrap their commitment to it in 1995, in order to win a general election two years later.

Successive rightwing Conservative governments have regarded public ownership as a necessary evil, to be tolerated only until you can find some private interest that will take it off your hands.

Yet I would posit that when it comes to those public goods and services that are needed, but not necessarily profitable - why would you leave it to the wolves?

(編輯:董靜)

Broadcaster

A Chinese lesson for the birthplace of rail

Greg Fountain is a copy editor and occasional presenter for China Daily. Before moving to Beijing in January, 2016 he worked for newspapers in the Middle East and UK. He has an M.A in Print Journalism from the University of Sheffield, a B.A in English and History from the University of Reading.

上一篇 : Bit of India in China's Oscar choice
下一篇 :

 
中國日報網英語點津版權說明:凡注明來源為“中國日報網英語點津:XXX(署名)”的原創作品,除與中國日報網簽署英語點津內容授權協議的網站外,其他任何網站或單位未經允許不得非法盜鏈、轉載和使用,違者必究。如需使用,請與010-84883561聯系;凡本網注明“來源:XXX(非英語點津)”的作品,均轉載自其它媒體,目的在于傳播更多信息,其他媒體如需轉載,請與稿件來源方聯系,如產生任何問題與本網無關;本網所發布的歌曲、電影片段,版權歸原作者所有,僅供學習與研究,如果侵權,請提供版權證明,以便盡快刪除。

中國日報網雙語新聞

掃描左側二維碼

添加Chinadaily_Mobile
你想看的我們這兒都有!

中國日報雙語手機報

點擊左側圖標查看訂閱方式

中國首份雙語手機報
學英語看資訊一個都不能少!

關注和訂閱

本文相關閱讀
人氣排行
熱搜詞
 
 
精華欄目
 

閱讀

詞匯

視聽

翻譯

口語

合作

 

關于我們 | 聯系方式 | 招聘信息

Copyright by chinadaily.com.cn. All rights reserved. None of this material may be used for any commercial or public use. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited. 版權聲明:本網站所刊登的中國日報網英語點津內容,版權屬中國日報網所有,未經協議授權,禁止下載使用。 歡迎愿意與本網站合作的單位或個人與我們聯系。

電話:8610-84883645

傳真:8610-84883500

Email: [email protected]

主站蜘蛛池模板: 欧美视频三区 | 日韩大片在线 | 国内自拍偷拍网 | 久久国内精品 | 加勒比精品久久一区二区三区 | 成人高清在线观看 | 日韩日b视频 | 黄色av电影在线播放 | 免费观看日韩大尺码观看 | 很黄很粗很湿很刺激的视频 | 国产精品高清在线 | 久久亚洲国产欧洲精品一 | 欧美一级黄视频 | 色天天天天综合男人的天堂 | 免费毛片网站 | 久久永久免费中文字幕 | 中文字幕电影在线观看 | 人人模人人干 | 亚洲天堂在线播放 | 亚洲欧美日韩中文字幕在线不卡 | 九九久久久 | 91中文在线观看 | 99久久九九爱看免费直播 | 天天摸天天碰天天碰 | 亚洲性色视频 | 一起射综合网 | 久久中文网 | 天天操天天添 | 欧美成人看片黄a免费看 | 国产福利精品在线观看 | 成人a网| 国产日韩一区二区三免费高清 | 成人av一区二区三区 | 国产视频91在线 | 高清在线不卡 | 亚洲人天堂 | 国产欧美日韩在线观看 | 亚洲黄色在线 | 欧美—级v免费大片 | av影音资源| 亚洲精品免费在线观看 |