西班牙某高铁因乘客稀少停运

西班牙国有铁路运营商于近日决定停运一条最新开通的高速铁路，原因是该线路自开通以来，每天只有9名乘客搭乘。

Spain's state-controlled rail operator has been forced to axe¹ 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（开始，开幕） with much fanfare²（吹牛，炫耀） 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（承认，退让） 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 infrastructure³ "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 toll⁴ 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 burgeoned⁵ out（发展，扩展） 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.