西班牙國有鐵路運營商于近日決定停運一條最新開通的高速鐵路，原因是該線路自開通以來，每天只有9名乘客搭乘。據悉，這條高鐵線路于去年12月正式開通，主要連接卡斯蒂利亞-拉曼恰首府托萊多和阿爾瓦塞特及昆卡等城市，是西班牙取代法國成為歐洲最大高鐵運營網絡的重要線路之一。據介紹，該線路每日的運行費用為1.8萬歐元，但是日均客流量僅有9人，成為了一條名副其實的“鬼魂列車”。該公司客運總監宣布，該條線路將于本周五起停運，原本搭乘該線路的乘客需要在馬德里換乘，出行時間將比目前增加20多分鐘。

Enrique Urkijo, the Director General for Passengers at Renfe said 'From Friday it will no longer be in service.'

Spain's state-controlled rail operator has been forced to axe one of its newest high speed train services after it emerged that the only nine passengers were using it each day.

The AVE route connecting the Castilla la Mancha capital Toledo with the cities of Albacete and Cuenca was inaugurated with much fanfare last December, one of the links that helped Spain overtake France as the country operating Europe's biggest high speed rail network.

But Enrique Urkijo, the Director General for Passengers at Renfe, was forced to concede that the project had not been a success and that operating a "ghost train" was no longer feasible.

"From Friday it will no longer be in service," he announced in Toledo on Monday.

"Renfe feels the pain when we transport only steel," he said referring to the fact that only nine passengers on average used the route daily.

Instead passengers will have to change trains in Madrid, from which high-speed trains are already operating to the biggest three cities of Castilla-La Mancha. The journey time would increase from two hours and five minutes between Toledo and Albacete to two hours and 28 minutes.

The failed route, which costs 18,000 euros (￡16,000) a day to operate, is one of a series of infrastructure "white elephants" that have sprung up in recent years across the Spanish landscape.

Castellon Airport, built at a cost of 150 million euros (￡134 million) and inaugurated in March, has yet to receive its first scheduled flight. Mile upon mile of empty toll roads are running at a loss.

A large part of austerity measures introduced by the government of Jose Luis Rodriquez has been to drastically shrink public spending on infrastructure that burgeoned out of control during the country's boom years and sent its borrowing costs soaring as the economic crisis hit.

Since Spain opened its first bullet train connection between Madrid and Seville in 1992 it has become the operator of the largest high-speed network in Europe with more than 1,700 miles of track.

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(Agencies)

（中國日報網英語點津 Helen ）