Hello, I'm Rob. Welcome to our programme. Today we're talking about high-speed train travel. Many countries have very fast trains that transport people from city to city in super-quick time. Yes, high-speed train travel is becoming popular. Well, we'll be finding out why the UK is hoping to do something that is already popular by building a new high-speed rail line.
We know that high-speed train travel has many good things. It helps to take traffic off the road, it causes less pollution, it can move lots of people and it's quick. Yes, speed is important. Now, the TGV train in France takes about three hours to travel over 750 kilometres from Paris to Marseille in the south - very impressive.
But the UK has been slow to build high-speed rail lines. It has one from London to Paris, but the Transport Secretary, Patrick McLoughlin, thinks one line is not good enough. People can go from London to Paris on high-speed trains, but can't go from London to Birmingham. That means you can get to Paris by train more quickly than you can travel to many British cities. The government wants to build another one — called HS2 — connecting London to the middle and north of England.
But not everyone agrees to the plan and there is much discussion. Some say it will be very expensive to build, although some experts（专家）say for every 1 pound spent, it will bring 2 pounds back. There are also worries that some of the countrysides will be destroyed. It could be a long time before a final decision is made. So now we'll just have to accept that our trains in the UK will carry on at an unhurried speed while we watch with envy as another country's high-speed train passes us by!
Thank you. We hope you've enjoyed today's programme.
