原文標題：
The Elizabeth line
Have you come far?
London’s newest railway has quickly become its most popular
伊麗莎白線
你是遠道而來的嗎？
倫敦最新鐵路已迅速成為最受歡迎的鐵路

The startling success of the Elizabeth line
伊麗莎白線的驚人成功

[Paragraph 1]
JOHN BETJEMAN would have been disappointed. The poet suggested bombing Slough.
約翰.貝杰曼會失望的，他曾建議炸掉斯勞市。

The town contained “bogus-Tudor bars”, “air-conditioned, bright canteens” and (a final horror) people who “often go to Maidenhead”.
該市有 "仿都鐸風格酒吧"、"有空調、明亮的餐廳 "和（還有一件恐怖事情）有"經常去梅登黑德 "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，現(xiàn)在去那里已經變得更容易了。伊麗莎白線是一條橫跨倫敦的火車線路，從埃塞克斯到雷丁，經停斯勞站，在去年5月正式開通了。

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.
大量的英國人在這條線上通行：根據(jù)鐵路和公路局的數(shù)據(jù)，現(xiàn)在有近1/6的鐵路客運是在這條線路上進行的。據(jù)說，有些人甚至在梅登黑德站下車。

[Paragraph 2]
London’s newest railway line may not be poetic—its other stations include the less-than-lyrical Woolwich—but it is epic.
倫敦最新鐵路線可能并不詩意--其他經停站包括不那么有詩意的伍爾維奇站--但這是一條史詩級鐵路。

Building it was what is known in engineering as a “megaproject”, and the epithet is deserved.
工程界稱之為"巨型項目" ，獲得這個稱謂也當之無愧。

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公里的新鐵路隧道和13.5公里的人行隧道。修建過程中挖出的土方足夠在泰晤士河建造一個自然保護區(qū)，300萬立方米的混凝土，相當于國際公認的巨大單位--奧林匹克游泳池?？偠灾薮鬅o比。

[Paragraph 3]
It is also necessary, because London, too, is big.
這也是必要的，因為倫敦也很大。

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.
當維多利亞時代的熱氣球愛好者第一次飛上天空，俯視他們腳下的歐洲城市時，他們震驚地發(fā)現(xiàn)巴黎或倫敦的美麗中心僅占整體的一小部分；?著名的宮殿、畫廊和公園不過是城市擴張和工業(yè)大海中的古代孤島。

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，大海已經變成了海洋。從伊麗莎白線的一端到另一端，首都的地鐵地圖現(xiàn)在覆蓋了100公里遠的距離。

[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.
這條線路差點就擱淺了。正如倫敦的火車和地鐵遭受擁堵一樣，修建這些工程項目也常受阻。

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，倫敦顯然需要更多的東西橫向鐵路運力，但并不清楚如何實現(xiàn)。

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（當時的名稱）與其他項目排在一起，包括一條從切爾西到市區(qū)東部哈克尼的新火車線路。哈克尼拯救了這個巨型項目。

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.
當公務員們向撒切爾夫人提出修建一條鐵路后，她感到震驚："你知道住在哈克尼的都是些什么人嗎？”"他們不是保守黨的選民。" 于是Cross-rail 鐵路得到批準。

[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.
在這幾年中，Cross-rail沒有了連字符；花了189億英鎊（238億美元）費用；多虧了鮑里斯·約翰遜，他有了一個新名字。

The “Elizabeth line” was opened by the then queen, three-and-a-half years later than expected, on May 24th 2022.
“伊麗莎白線”于 2022 年 5 月 24 日由當時的女王主持開通，比預期晚了三年半。

The delay was understandable. Digging a big tunnel is hard; digging it under a city is harder.
開通延遲可以理解。畢竟挖一條大隧道很難；在城市下方挖隧道更難。

[Paragraph 6]
And the new line had complicated things in it.
而且，新線路中包含了復雜的工序。

Betjeman may have sneered at air-conditioning but the Elizabeth line has it throughout.
貝杰曼可能對空調嗤之以鼻，但伊麗莎白線到處都有空調。

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).
為確保其正常運行，工程師們必須考慮大方面問題，如隧道中的氣流（205米長的列車，每節(jié)車廂都非常長，向后傾斜的座椅看起來像藝術家的透視練習，充當活塞作用），以及小方面問題，如車上的人（每個乘客在坐著時產生100瓦左右的能量，站立時產生120瓦的能量）。

Without air-conditioning, says Phil Clayton, its chief engineer, things “become very hot”.
鐵路總工程師菲爾.克萊頓說，如果沒有空調，一切都會 "變得很熱"。

[Paragraph 7]
It was worth the bother. Travel on London’s underground railways and you travel not only through space but through time.
這一切都是值得的。在倫敦乘坐地下鐵道系統(tǒng)，你不僅可以體驗空間穿越感，還可以體驗時間穿越感。

There is an archaeology of engineering beneath the city’s streets, each line a railway and a relic.
城市街道下面有對應的工程考古學，每條線既是鐵路也是考古遺跡。

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.
有些路線代表了維多利亞時期的破舊，而伊麗莎白系列則是純粹的 21 世紀時尚風格，明亮優(yōu)雅、有機混凝土曲線清晰可見。它就像一個光線充足的大腸。

[Paragraph 8]
The megaproject is now home to life’s minutiae.
這個大型項目現(xiàn)在已經容納了生活中微小的細節(jié)。

In Slough and Maidenhead, people embark and sit beneath too-intimate adverts for menopause pills and hair-loss treatments.
在斯勞和梅登黑德，旅客在更年期藥片和脫發(fā)治療廣告下方登車和就坐。

Speak to them, and they say that they love it: the cleanliness, the speed and—above all—the air-conditioning.
與他們交談，他們表示喜歡這樣的生活：干凈、快捷，最重要的是，有空調。

Betjeman can go hang.
貝杰曼要氣死了。

（恭喜讀完，本篇英語詞匯量701左右）
原文出自：2023年5月13日《The Economist》Britain版塊

精讀筆記來源于：自由英語之路

本文翻譯整理: Irene

本文編輯校對: Irene
僅供個人英語學習交流使用。

【補充資料】（來自于網絡）
伊麗莎白線（The Elizabeth line）是英國倫敦的一條城市鐵路線，也是歐洲最大的公共交通工程之一。該線路開通后將連接倫敦西部希思羅機場和東部沿海地區(qū)肯特郡的雷德漢姆，全長約118公里，途經40個車站。該線路原名Crossrail，為了紀念女王伊麗莎白二世登基60周年而更名為伊麗莎白線。伊麗莎白線采用全自動駕駛模式，預計每天可承載20萬乘客。該線路運營列車速度最高可達145公里/小時，從希思羅機場到倫敦市中心僅需48分鐘，比目前的地鐵和火車都要快。除了連接主要商業(yè)中心和旅游景點外，伊麗莎白線還將通過其高效的交通網絡，縮短通勤時間，改善倫敦市民日常出行質量。伊麗莎白線于2018年12月進行首次試運營，但因多種原因推遲了正式開通時間，已于2022年5月24日開通。

約翰·貝杰曼（John Betjeman）是一位英國詩人、作家和廣播電臺主持人，被譽為20世紀最具代表性的英國詩人之一。他于1906年出生于倫敦，曾在牛津大學學習英國文學，隨后成為了一名記者。貝杰曼的詩歌刻畫了英國城市和農村的風景和生活，充滿著對傳統(tǒng)文化、歷史建筑和英國社會的熱愛和探索。他的詩歌語言簡練，富有抒情色彩，常以幽默的手法諷刺現(xiàn)代社會的浮華和愚昧。他還參與了多個文化遺產和城市保護組織的工作，為保護英國的歷史建筑和文化遺產貢獻了自己的力量。

【重點句子】（3個）
Building it was what is known in engineering as a “megaproject”, and the epithet is deserved.
工程界稱之為 "巨型項目" ，獲得這個稱謂也當之無愧。

The delay was understandable. Digging a big tunnel is hard; digging it under a city is harder.
開通延遲可以理解。畢竟挖一條大隧道很難；在城市下方挖隧道更難。

It was worth the bother. Travel on London’s underground railways and you travel not only through space but through time.
這一切都是值得的。在倫敦乘坐地下鐵道系統(tǒng)，你不僅可以體驗空間穿越感 ，還可以體驗時間穿越感。