《经济学人》双语：美国铁路成本增加，利润也增加的反常现象
原文标题：
American railways
Chugging along
Supply-chain snags are driving up the profits of those shifting rail cargo
美国铁路
嘎嚓嘎嚓前行
供应链上的小问题正在推高那些铁路转运货物的利润
Chugging along Times are good for American railways
长时间的颠簸对美国铁路有好处
Paragraph 1：
FEW INDUSTRIES are more vulnerable to events that depress revenues and increase expenses than America’s railways.
在收益减少和费用增加情况下，几乎没有哪个行业比美国的铁路更容易受到影响。
The basic business model is toluglots of stuff to offset the highfixed costsof owning fleets oflocomotivesand maintaining thousands of miles of track.
基本的商业模式是装载大量的货物，以抵消机车车队和维护数千英里轨道的高额固定成本。
That has been hard as America’s supply chain has comeunglued, first because of covid-19 and then as it haswaned. Ports aregridlocked, warehouses over-stuffed and labour unavailable.
美国的供应链开始变得不顺利，首先是因为新冠，然后就开始衰落。港口拥堵，仓库堆满货物，劳动力缺乏。
It has unquestionably been a tough time to be a rail company and, it turns out, a remarkably good time to be one.
对于一家铁路公司，这无疑是一段艰难的时期，事实证明，这是一个非常好的时期。
Paragraph 2:
Volumes and profits at the listed companies that run America’s tracks and trains used to be tied as closely as a locomotive to its cargo. No longer.
经营美国铁路和火车的上市公司的产量和利润曾经像火车头一样与其货物紧密相连。现在不是了。
Traffic has yet to recover from pre-pandemic peaks, according to the Association of American Railroads, a trade group.
根据贸易集团美国铁路协会的数据，交通量已经恢复到从大流行前的状态。
But the financial equivalent of a train crash that such a slump would once havepresagedhas not arrived.
但是，经济不景气曾经预示的类似于火车瘫痪的财务危机还没有到来。
On the contrary, America’s major freight carriers are on their way to record annual profits.
相反，美国的主要货运公司正在实现创纪录的年利润。
Their share prices in recent weeks have helped stockmarkets therechug to new highs.
他们最近几周的股价帮助那里的股市创下新高。
Paragraph 3:
Traindispatchershaveearned their crustin recent months: vital rails underlying many trans-continental supply chainsare not exempt fromdisruptions of their own.
列车调度员在最近几个月的谋生情况：许多跨大陆供应链的重要铁路不能免于自身的中断。
At Union Pacific (UP), one of America’s two largest rail operators, fuel costs have risen by 74% over the past year and locomotive productivity has fallen by 8%.
美国两大铁路运营商之一的联合太平洋铁路公司，燃料成本在过去一年中上升了74%，机车生产率下降了8%。
Freight car “velocity”, the number of miles travelled in a day, is 5% below the company’s standard, in part because of “terminal dwell”—rail-speak for being stuck.
货车“速度”（一天行驶的英里数）比公司标准低5%，部分原因是“终点停留”——铁路被困住了。
Paragraph 4:
Wildfires across 13 western states during the summer caused widespread delays, rerouting and damage.
夏季，西部13个州的野火造成了大范围的延误、改道和破坏。
The global microchipsnafuhas reduced shipments of cars, a lucrative cargo.
全球芯片市场的混乱减少了汽车的出货量，这是一种利润丰厚的货物。
Railways have their own shortages tocontend with, from the rollingchassisused for unloading containers to large warehouses.
从用于卸载集装箱的滚动底盘到大型仓库，铁路都有其自身的不足。
Employees, whom rail bosses once thinned in repeated cost-cutting drives, are now in short supply too.
铁路公司的老板曾经在反复削减成本的过程中减少了员工的数量，但现在员工也供不应求。
Many who werefurloughedduring the early days are not keen on coming back to work, says James Foote, the chief executive of CSX, the third-largest rail company.
第三大铁路公司CSX的首席执行官詹姆斯·富特表示，许多在早期休假的人并不热衷于重返工作岗位。
Paragraph 5:
Ordinarily all these factors would be toxic, but these are not ordinary times.
一般情况下，所有这些因素都是有害的，但这不是一般情况。
The capacity to get goods from A to B has become extraordinarily valuable.
把货物从A运到B的能力变得非常宝贵。
Jennifer Hamann, UP’s finance chief, explains that strong demand “supports pricing actions that yield dollars exceeding inflation”.
UP财务总监詹妮弗·哈曼解释说，强劲的需求“支持产生超过通胀的美元的定价行为”。
Price rises mean UP’s operating income over the past two years is up by 9% even as volumes have slipped by 4%.
价格上涨意味着UP过去两年的营业收入增长了9%，尽管销量下滑了4%。
Paragraph 6:
Other railways have made precisely the same point (the networks overlap in places, though largely cover their own patch of America).
其他铁路也提出了同样的观点（铁路网在某些地方重叠，尽管大部分覆盖了他们自己的美国地区）。
All have limited capacity and similar obstacles.
所有这些火车公司的容量都有限，也存在类似的障碍。
Better yet, for railway shareholders, the shortage of labour has been even more acute in the trucking industry, blunting outside competition.
对于铁路股东来说，卡车运输行业的劳动力短缺问题越严重，削弱了外部竞争，这样越好。
Paragraph 7:
Inevitably, the environment will shift as bottlenecks are resolved and workers return.
随着瓶颈问题的解决和工人的返回，商业环境不可避免地会发生变化。
Pushy business customers will not have forgotten how to negotiate.
咄咄逼人的商业客户不会忘记如何谈判。
The railways themselves are not sitting still. UP, for example, is stretching its seemingly endless trains from 9,500 to 10,000 feet.
铁路本身并不是静止不动的。例如，UP公司正在将其看似无穷无尽的列车从9500英尺延伸到10000英尺。
CSXis introducing autonomous locomotives. Norfolk Southern is shifting ever more traffic from jammed west-coast ports to smoother operations on the east coast.
CSXis公司引进了自动机车。Norfolk Southern公司正将越来越多的交通从拥挤的西海岸港口转移到运营更加顺畅的东海岸。
This unusual moment, in short, will pass.
简而言之，这一不寻常的时刻将会过去。
But for now, the industry remains on something of a roll.
但就目前而言，该行业仍处于一定的不稳定阶段。
（恭喜读完，本篇英语词汇量592左右）
原文出自：11月20日《The Economist》Business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。
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