《经济学人》双语：伦敦最新铁路--伊丽莎白线最受欢迎？

原文标题：
The Elizabeth line
Have you come far?
London’s newest railway has quickly become its most popular
伊丽莎白线
你是远道而来的吗？
伦敦最新铁路已迅速成为最受欢迎的铁路

The startling success of the Elizabeth line
伊丽莎白线的惊人成功

[Paragraph 1]
JOHN BETJEMAN would have been disappointed. The poet suggested bombing Slough.
约翰.贝杰曼会失望的，他曾建议炸掉斯劳市。

The town contained “bogus-Tudor bars”, “air-conditioned, bright canteens” and (a final horror) people who “often go to Maidenhead”.
该市有 "仿都铎风格酒吧"、"有空调、明亮的餐厅 "和（还有一件恐怖事情）有"经常去梅登黑德 "的人。

Instead, it has become easier to get there. The Elizabeth line, a train line which runs across London on its way from Essex to Reading, stopping at Slough on the way, opened a year ago this month.
然而，现在去那里已经变得更容易了。伊丽莎白线是一条横跨伦敦的火车线路，从埃塞克斯到雷丁，经停斯劳站，在去年5月正式开通了。

Britons have been travelling on it in vast numbers: almost one in six of all rail journeys are, according to data from the Office of Rail and Road, now made on this line. Some people, it is said, even get off at Maidenhead.
大量的英国人在这条线上通行：根据铁路和公路局的数据，现在有近1/6的铁路客运是在这条线路上进行的。据说，有些人甚至在梅登黑德站下车。

[Paragraph 2]
London’s newest railway line may not be poetic—its other stations include the less-than-lyrical Woolwich—but it is epic.
伦敦最新铁路线可能并不诗意--其他经停站包括不那么有诗意的伍尔维奇站--但这是一条史诗级铁路。

Building it was what is known in engineering as a “megaproject”, and the epithet is deserved.
工程界称之为"巨型项目" ，获得这个称谓也当之无愧。

It has 42km of new rail tunnels and 13.5km of foot tunnels. Its construction involved the excavation of enough earth to build a nature reserve in the Thames, 3m cubic metres of concrete and the frequent deployment of the internationally understood unit of immensity, the Olympic swimming pool. It is big.
它有42公里的新铁路隧道和13.5公里的人行隧道。修建过程中挖出的土方足够在泰晤士河建造一个自然保护区，300万立方米的混凝土，相当于国际公认的巨大单位--奥林匹克游泳池。总而言之，巨大无比。

[Paragraph 3]
It is also necessary, because London, too, is big.
这也是必要的，因为伦敦也很大。

When Victorian balloonists first took to the skies and looked down at the European cities beneath them, they were shocked that the handsome centres of Paris or London comprised such a tiny part of the whole; the famous palaces, galleries and parks were mere islands of antiquity in seas of urban sprawl and industry.
当维多利亚时代的热气球爱好者第一次飞上天空，俯视他们脚下的欧洲城市时，他们震惊地发现巴黎或伦敦的美丽中心仅占整体的一小部分； 著名的宫殿、画廊和公园不过是城市扩张和工业大海中的古代孤岛。

Two centuries later, the seas have become oceans. From one end of the Elizabeth line to the other, the capital’s Tube map now covers a distance of 100km.
200年后，大海已经变成了海洋。从伊丽莎白线的一端到另一端，首都的地铁地图现在覆盖了100公里远的距离。

[Paragraph 4]
The line nearly didn’t happen. Just as London’s trains and Tubes suffer from congestion, so too do the engineering projects that create them.
这条线路差点就搁浅了。正如伦敦的火车和地铁遭受拥堵一样，修建这些工程项目也常受阻。

In the 1980s it was clear London needed more east-west rail capacity but it wasn’t clear how to make it happen.
在 1980 年代，伦敦显然需要更多的东西横向铁路运力，但并不清楚如何实现。

Cross-rail (as it was then called) found itself in a queue with other projects, including a new train line from Chelsea to Hackney, in the east of the city. Hackney saved it.
Cross-rail（当时的名称）与其他项目排在一起，包括一条从切尔西到市区东部哈克尼的新火车线路。哈克尼拯救了这个巨型项目。

When the latter was suggested by civil servants to Margaret Thatcher, she was appalled. “Do you know what sort of people live out in Hackney? “They are not Conservative voters.” Cross-rail was a go.
当公务员们向撒切尔夫人提出修建一条铁路后，她感到震惊："你知道住在哈克尼的都是些什么人吗？”"他们不是保守党的选民。" 于是Cross-rail 铁路得到批准。

[Paragraph 5]
In the intervening years Cross-rail lost its hyphen; absorbed £18.9bn ($23.8bn) in spending; and, thanks to Boris Johnson, got a new name.
在这几年中，Cross-rail没有了连字符；花了189亿英镑（238亿美元）费用；多亏了鲍里斯·约翰逊，他有了一个新名字。

The “Elizabeth line” was opened by the then queen, three-and-a-half years later than expected, on May 24th 2022.
“伊丽莎白线”于 2022 年 5 月 24 日由当时的女王主持开通，比预期晚了三年半。

The delay was understandable. Digging a big tunnel is hard; digging it under a city is harder.
开通延迟可以理解。毕竟挖一条大隧道很难；在城市下方挖隧道更难。

[Paragraph 6]
And the new line had complicated things in it.
而且，新线路中包含了复杂的工序。

Betjeman may have sneered at air-conditioning but the Elizabeth line has it throughout.
贝杰曼可能对空调嗤之以鼻，但伊丽莎白线到处都有空调。

To ensure it worked, engineers had to consider big things, such as airflow in the tunnels (the 205-metre trains, each so long that their receding seats look like an artist’s exercise in perspective, act as pistons), and small ones, such as the people on them (each passenger produces around 100 watts of power when seated, 120 when standing).
为确保其正常运行，工程师们必须考虑大方面问题，如隧道中的气流（205米长的列车，每节车厢都非常长，向后倾斜的座椅看起来像艺术家的透视练习，充当活塞作用），以及小方面问题，如车上的人（每个乘客在坐着时产生100瓦左右的能量，站立时产生120瓦的能量）。

Without air-conditioning, says Phil Clayton, its chief engineer, things “become very hot”.
铁路总工程师菲尔.克莱顿说，如果没有空调，一切都会 "变得很热"。

[Paragraph 7]
It was worth the bother. Travel on London’s underground railways and you travel not only through space but through time.
这一切都是值得的。在伦敦乘坐地下铁道系统，你不仅可以体验空间穿越感，还可以体验时间穿越感。

There is an archaeology of engineering beneath the city’s streets, each line a railway and a relic.
城市街道下面有对应的工程考古学，每条线既是铁路也是考古遗迹。

Whereas some typify Victorian ramshackle, the Elizabeth line is pure 21st-century chic, with uplighting and elegant, organically curving concrete. It’s like a well-lit large intestine.
有些路线代表了维多利亚时期的破旧，而伊丽莎白系列则是纯粹的 21 世纪时尚风格，明亮优雅、有机混凝土曲线清晰可见。它就像一个光线充足的大肠。

[Paragraph 8]
The megaproject is now home to life’s minutiae.
这个大型项目现在已经容纳了生活中微小的细节。

In Slough and Maidenhead, people embark and sit beneath too-intimate adverts for menopause pills and hair-loss treatments.
在斯劳和梅登黑德，旅客在更年期药片和脱发治疗广告下方登车和就坐。

Speak to them, and they say that they love it: the cleanliness, the speed and—above all—the air-conditioning.
与他们交谈，他们表示喜欢这样的生活：干净、快捷，最重要的是，有空调。

Betjeman can go hang.
贝杰曼要气死了。

（恭喜读完，本篇英语词汇量701左右）
原文出自：2023年5月13日《The Economist》Britain版块

精读笔记来源于：自由英语之路

本文翻译整理: Irene

本文编辑校对: Irene
仅供个人英语学习交流使用。

【补充资料】（来自于网络）
伊丽莎白线（The Elizabeth line）是英国伦敦的一条城市铁路线，也是欧洲最大的公共交通工程之一。该线路开通后将连接伦敦西部希思罗机场和东部沿海地区肯特郡的雷德汉姆，全长约118公里，途经40个车站。该线路原名Crossrail，为了纪念女王伊丽莎白二世登基60周年而更名为伊丽莎白线。伊丽莎白线采用全自动驾驶模式，预计每天可承载20万乘客。该线路运营列车速度最高可达145公里/小时，从希思罗机场到伦敦市中心仅需48分钟，比目前的地铁和火车都要快。除了连接主要商业中心和旅游景点外，伊丽莎白线还将通过其高效的交通网络，缩短通勤时间，改善伦敦市民日常出行质量。伊丽莎白线于2018年12月进行首次试运营，但因多种原因推迟了正式开通时间，已于2022年5月24日开通。

约翰·贝杰曼（John Betjeman）是一位英国诗人、作家和广播电台主持人，被誉为20世纪最具代表性的英国诗人之一。他于1906年出生于伦敦，曾在牛津大学学习英国文学，随后成为了一名记者。贝杰曼的诗歌刻画了英国城市和农村的风景和生活，充满着对传统文化、历史建筑和英国社会的热爱和探索。他的诗歌语言简练，富有抒情色彩，常以幽默的手法讽刺现代社会的浮华和愚昧。他还参与了多个文化遗产和城市保护组织的工作，为保护英国的历史建筑和文化遗产贡献了自己的力量。

【重点句子】（3个）
Building it was what is known in engineering as a “megaproject”, and the epithet is deserved.
工程界称之为 "巨型项目" ，获得这个称谓也当之无愧。

The delay was understandable. Digging a big tunnel is hard; digging it under a city is harder.
开通延迟可以理解。毕竟挖一条大隧道很难；在城市下方挖隧道更难。

It was worth the bother. Travel on London’s underground railways and you travel not only through space but through time.
这一切都是值得的。在伦敦乘坐地下铁道系统，你不仅可以体验空间穿越感 ，还可以体验时间穿越感。