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 今日主題：Buses--Up to speed  公共汽車--提升速度

 康康精選GRE&GMAT會考的主題，堅持每天精讀一定會進步的哦!!
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http://xia2.kekenet.com/Sound/2014/09/2_19447015qy.mp3

 只有音檔怎夠，聽不懂地方，不用怕，康康幫你準備好中英文稿了：

 中英文稿：
Buses--Up to speed
公共汽車--提升速度

Copying the capital is even harder than it looks
模仿首都易，實則苦難言

FEW Britons feel passionate about buses. Unlike the railways, they spur few protests or angry letters in local newspapers. On August 26th IPPR, a left-leaning think-tank influential in Labour circles, attempted to change this. Buses “seem to be the forgotten aspect of public transport”, the authors of a new report sighed. But their proposed prescription is almost as doddery as an old Routemaster.
少有不列顛人對公共汽車表示憤怒的。不像鐵路，他們很少在當地報紙上對公共汽車提出抗議或者向報社投寄發洩怒氣的信件。在8月26日，公共政策研究所—一 個在工黨圈內有影響力的左傾智庫——試圖改變這種狀況。在一則新報導中，有作者歎道公共汽車“看來已經成了公共交通系統中被遺忘的一環”。不過他們提出的 建議基本上跟老司路者一樣老掉牙了。

In London, bus use is soaring. Some 7m journeys are made there each day, on a bus network that is highly regulated by Transport for London (TfL), a body that oversees public transport in the city, as well as many roads. But outside the capital the deregulated bus network can be patchy, with multiple ticketing systems and buses prone to get stuck in traffic, and use is falling.
在倫敦，對公共汽車的使用飆升。每天約有7百萬人次到此觀光，故而公共汽車系統為倫敦運輸局（TfL）高效管理，這個組織管轄倫敦城內公共運輸系統以及相 當多的道路。不過在首都之外的公交網路，由於缺乏管理變得差強人意，相應的大量的售票系統和公共汽車在交通中發生擁堵，因而對公共汽車的使用量下降。

The sharp contrast between London and the rest suggests to IPPR that large transport bodies similar to TfL ought to be set up, particularly in big metropolises. This would allow both better co-ordination and more effective lobbying of the Treasury. Since TfL was created in 2000 London’s bus network has been pumped with cash. Although it has fallen back slightly, net public support to London’s buses, at 809m in 2012-13, is still far higher than the amount doled out to other big cities.
倫敦及其他地區的強烈對比使得IPPR認為類似於 TfL 的大型交通組織應當建立起來，特別是在大都市。這有利於更好地協調合作以及更為有效地遊說財政部以獲得資金支持。自從2000年以來TfL 建立，倫敦的公交網路來錢如井噴，雖然現在有些許回落，但公共交通網絡在2012~2013年間給倫敦公交共資助了八千九百萬英鎊，遠高於給予其他大城市 的資金撥款。

The bigger-body plan, though, is likely to remain a theory. Even in Manchester, the most go-ahead big city outside London, a combined authority representing local governments is only just getting limited powers over transport. London is exceedingly unusual and hard to copy. It has a high-profile elected mayor, a large congestion-charging zone and a young, fast-growing population that shuns cars. Bus use is rising even though they are no longer particularly cheap. Fares are now, by one measure, some of the highest in Britain. Since 2005 they have increased by 23%, only slightly less than in other metropolitan areas.
不過這種擴大組織的計畫，很可能會停留在紙面上。即便像曼徹斯特這種除倫敦之外走在前列的城市，當地聯合執政的政府對於交通運輸業的管轄權力依然有限。倫 敦過於特殊，難以複製。它有高調選舉產生的市長，一大片擁堵收費的區域以及一群迅速成長起來的年輕、買不起車的人。儘管公共交通出行已經不是特別便宜了， 但是對公共交通系統使用數量仍在上升。據一項調查表明，如今的公共汽車出行費用，有些在不列顛都是最高的。公交費用自2005年以來已經增長了23%，僅 次於其他大城市地區。

Buses are doing well in a few other spots, too. As the report notes, they are popular in Oxford and Brighton, congested cities with high parking fees. In East Kent 29m passenger trips were made on buses run by Stagecoach, Britain’s biggest bus operator, in 2011, up from 14m in 2003. Punctuality is improving in many areas. Routes have been cut back outside London—but many of them were publicly subsidised ones squeezed by austerity.
如報導中提到的，在牛津和布萊頓這些停車費用很高的擁擠的城市裡，公共交通也十分流行。在東肯特，出行使用“驛站馬車”公司公車的人次由2003年的 140萬上升至2011年的290萬。該公司乃是不列顛最大的公交運營商。在諸多區域不準時的狀況正在改善。倫敦之外的線路已經砍掉不少—不過很多是由於 財政緊縮政策而被排除出局的。

Rather than try and replicate TfL, local authorities might be encouraged to impose stricter parking regulations and work harder with bus companies to improve service. Concessionary fares, overseen by individual councils, could be simplified and targeted at the poor far more efficiently. But in some areas it would be wise to accept that bus use will just continue to decline, says David Leeder, a bus expert. In regions such as north-east England, where unemployment is the highest in the country, car ownership has traditionally been low. But it is starting to catch up as the economy recovers. That is more bad news for buses.
與其嘗試複製TfL模式，不如鼓勵地方當局制定更為嚴格的停車條例並與公交公司共同致力改善服務。由個別理事會監督下的優惠收費專案可以簡化，並有效地向 窮困人員傾斜。公交研究專家大衛德•李德說，不過在一些區域，接受公車使用量減少也許是明智的。在諸如英格蘭東北部的一些區域，那裡是整個國家失業率最高 的地方，私車擁有量從來很低。而當經濟復蘇的時候，私車擁有量也開始上揚。這對於公車事業來說無異於雪上加霜。