In 2009 Vietnam’s then prime minister made an audacious(大胆的，有冒险精神的) proposal for a high-speed railway that would connect the country’s south and north, replacing the creaking(嘎吱作响的，老旧的) Transindochinois(① Transindochinois译作...) installed by the French a century earlier. The project, which would have cost more than half of the country’s annual GDP at the time, was approved by Vietnam’s communist politburo and central committee before being blocked by the National Assembly in a rare show of discord(罕见的异议表现).
2009年，越南时任总理提出了一项大胆提议，建设一条连接该国南北的高速铁路，以取代一个世纪前法国人修建的老旧的“Transindochinois”铁路。该项目当时耗资超过该国年GDP的一半，获得了越南共产党政治局和中央委员会的批准，但最终在国民议会中被否决，这是一次罕见的异议表现。
Seventeen years on, and at the helm(掌舵，领导) of a much stronger economy, Vietnam’s leaders have revived dreams of a 1,540km railway that would cut the journey from Ho Chi Minh City to Hanoi, the capital, to six hours, down from the current 35. With an updated price tag of $70bn, a still hefty(巨大的，沉重的) 14% or so of the current GDP, it would be the largest infrastructure project in Vietnam’s history and among the costliest rail schemes in the world. Construction will begin before year-end, authorities say. Except they have yet to answer one thorny(棘手的，多刺的) question: where’s the money?
十七年过去了，越南领导人如今掌管着更强大的经济，重新燃起了修建一条1540公里铁路的梦想，该铁路将使胡志明市至首都河内的行程从目前的35小时缩短至6小时。更新后的价格标签高达7000亿美元，仍占当前GDP的14%左右，这将是越南历史上最大的基础设施项目，也是世界上成本最高的铁路计划之一。当局表示，建设将在年底前开始。但他们尚未回答一个棘手的问题：钱从哪来？
As an investment, high-speed rail has a bad reputation. Examples abound from California to Britain of projects that have become dogged by cost overruns(成本超支), delays and scandal. To pull them off(成功完成), many in the region have leaned on(依靠，依赖) China, which hosts the world’s longest and, by metrics including ridership, speed of construction and cost, most successful high-speed rail system. With nearly all of their own big cities already connected, Chinese engineers are also looking outward for new projects. The government in Hanoi, however, has its own reasons for steering clear(避开，远离).
作为一项投资，高铁声誉不佳。从加利福尼亚到英国，项目屡屡受困于成本超支、延误和丑闻。为了成功实施，该地区许多国家依靠中国，中国拥有世界上最长的、以客流量、建设速度和成本等指标衡量最成功的高铁系统。中国工程师自己的大城市几乎都已连接起来，也开始向外寻找新项目。然而，河内政府有自己的理由避而远之。