尊敬的用户您好，这是来自FT中文网的温馨提示：如您对更多FT中文网的内容感兴趣，请在苹果应用商店或谷歌应用市场搜索“FT中文网”，下载FT中文网的官方应用。
The new UK government’s plans to nationalise rail services are thundering down the parliamentary tracks faster than most trains on the country’s rickety rail network. They add up to a major reversal of one of the flagship Conservative privatisations of the 1980s and 1990s. The commitment of Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour to “move fast and fix things” is commendable; fixing the railways is important not just for passengers but to boost economic growth. But in prioritising ownership it is focusing on the wrong issue.
英国新政府的铁路服务国有化计划正以迅雷之势在议会轨道上推进，其速度比该国快散架的铁路网络上跑着的绝大多数火车都快。这些计划是对20世纪80年代和90年代保守党私有化旗舰计划之一的重大逆转。基尔•斯塔默爵士的工党的“快速行动，解决问题”值得称赞；修复铁路不仅对乘客很重要，而且对促进经济增长也很重要。但工党将所有权放在首位，是将重点放错了地方。
A bill that received a lightning third reading on Tuesday will return franchised passenger rail services to public hands when existing contracts end or reach a breakpoint — which at least means this renationalisation has little upfront cost. The government says it will produce a more centralised network, under the “directing mind” of a still-to-be-created arms-length body, Great British Railways. It touts the potential to cut costs by removing duplicative bureaucracy, and to simplify the unpopular maze of ticketing.
本周二，一项法案闪电般地进行了三读，该法案将在现有合同到期或达到断点时将特许客运铁路服务交还给公众——这至少意味着此次重新国有化的前期成本很小。政府表示，这将建立一个更加集中化的铁路网络，由一个尚未成立的独立机构，“大不列颠铁路”(Great British Railways)来“领导”。该政府吹嘘此举将削减成本，消除重复的官僚机构，并简化不受欢迎的票务迷宫。
The danger, though, is that as with British Rail in the 1970s, public ownership will mean poor management and cost control, and empower rail unions with which Labour has just expensively settled long-running pay disputes. Recent experience shows state control does not guarantee better service. Ask long-suffering passengers of Northern Rail, one of four previously franchised services already taken back by the state.
但危险在于，与20世纪70年代的英国铁路公司一样，公有制将意味着糟糕的管理和成本控制，并赋予铁路工会权力，而工党刚刚与这些工会以高昂代价解决了长期的薪酬纠纷。最近的经验表明，国家控制并不能保证提供更好的服务。问问长期受苦受难的北铁乘客就知道了——北铁是之前四个特许经营服务之一，已经被国家收回。
The flawed franchising system created distorted incentives; several large franchises failed after overpromising on revenues. But the Conservative government committed in 2021 to shift to passenger service contracts with private companies, which pay a fee for providing tightly specified services with penalties for failures to meet targets. This was a sensible concept that avoided full nationalisation. Several countries, including Germany and Sweden, use service contracts on some services. (In Japan’s famously reliable rail network, the private sector takes the lead on almost all routes, though with a very different structure to Britain’s.)
有缺陷的特许经营制度造成了扭曲的激励机制；几个大型特许经营项目因过度承诺收入而失败。但保守党政府在2021年承诺改用与私营公司签订的客运服务合同，私营公司要支付费用，提供严格规定的服务，未能达到目标还要接受处罚。这是一个明智的概念，避免了全面国有化。包括德国和瑞典在内的一些国家在某些服务上使用了服务合同。(在日本以可靠著称的铁路网络中，几乎所有线路都由私营部门主导，但其结构与英国截然不同）。
With about half of cancellations blamed on infrastructure owners, the biggest problem dogging Britain’s railways is not ownership of operators but constrained and crumbling capacity. This follows years of inconsistent and inadequate government-led investment in rail infrastructure, most of which was returned to public hands under Network Rail in 2002. Sustained higher investment in tracks is vital — but Labour, though it has promised a more detailed rail reform bill in due course, has so far said little on this subject.
约一半的取消行程归咎于基础设施所有者，困扰英国铁路的最大问题不是运营商的所有权，而是运力受限和崩溃。这是由于多年来政府对铁路基础设施的不一致和不充分的投资，其中大部分在2002年归还给了国有企业Network Rail。持续增加对轨道的投资至关重要，但工党虽然承诺将在适当的时候提出更详细的铁路改革法案，但在这个问题上迄今为止几乎没有发表意见。
The need is all the greater after then prime minister Rishi Sunak last year cancelled the remaining northern leg of HS2, the high-speed project from London originally to Manchester and Leeds. Though costs had ballooned, HS2 promised new capacity as much as speed. The government must urgently find other ways to ease congestion on the West Coast main line, where commuter and intercity services share tracks in places, and which is vital for the net zero priority of shifting freight from roads to rail. It should study a plan from city mayors and engineering firms for a cheaper, privately funded line along HS2’s axed Birmingham-Manchester route.
在英国首相里希•苏纳克(Rishi Sunak)去年取消了HS2剩余的北段之后，这一需求就更加迫切了。HS2是一项从伦敦到曼彻斯特和利兹的高速铁路项目，尽管成本飙升，但它承诺提供新的容量和速度。政府必须紧急寻找其他方法来缓解西海岸干线的拥堵问题，该干线在某些地方是通勤和城际服务共享轨道的重要线路，对于将货物从公路转移到铁路的零排放优先事项至关重要。它应该研究市长和工程公司提的一项计划，即在高铁2号被砍掉的伯明翰-曼彻斯特线路沿线修建一条更便宜、私人资助的线路。
It would also be helpful for the government to clarify its view of Northern Powerhouse Rail, the proposed east-west line connecting northern English cities that is central to revitalising services. And it should draw up coherent plans for redirecting funds no longer being spent on HS2 to other projects.
政府还应明确其对Northern Powerhouse Rail的看法，这是连接英国北部城市的东西向线路，对于振兴服务至关重要。并且应制定一致的计划，将不再用于HS2的资金重新分配给其他项目。
In doing so, Labour should heed the advice of a policy review it commissioned, and seek private funding too. The report led by former Siemens UK boss Juergen Maier recommended new partnerships, akin to those often used in Europe and Asia, involving “blended finance” — with the private sector taking on delivery and recouping a return later. In revitalising rail, Britain’s new government would be wise to create room for more private sector investment and involvement, not less.
在此过程中，工党应听取其委托进行的一项政策审查的建议，同时寻求私人资金。这份由西门子英国公司前老板尤尔根•迈尔(Juergen Maier)领导的报告建议建立新的合作伙伴关系，类似于欧洲和亚洲经常采用的“混合融资”模式：由私营部门负责交付，之后再收回回报。在振兴铁路的过程中，英国新政府最好为更多的私营部门投资和参与创造空间，而不是更少。