How many times have you agonised over how to get to Pudong Airport? Take the train to Hongqiao Railway Station and then the airport bus? Take the train to Shanghai Railway Station and then bus, metro or taxi? Either way you slice it, it’s a long trip.
您曾多少次为如何去浦东机场而苦恼？坐火车到虹桥火车站再转机场大巴？坐火车到上海火车站，然后乘坐公交车、地铁或出租车？无论你用哪种方式切片，这都是一次漫长的旅行。
Not for too much longer. Yesterday, 15 December, saw the cutter head on a tunnelling shield machine begin to turn as boring commenced on a direct rail link between Shanghai Hongqiao Transportation Hub and Shanghai Pudong International Airport. When complete, journey time between the two shall be just 40 minutes.
不会太久。昨天，12月15日，随着上海虹桥交通枢纽和上海浦东国际机场之间的直达铁路线的钻孔开始，隧道盾构机上的刀盘开始转动。完工后，两者之间的行程时间将仅为 40 分钟。
The long-awaited line shall have a total length of 68.6 kilometres. Trains travelling thereon are set to operate at speeds up to 160 kilometres per hour, reports the Yangtze Evening News.
这条期待已久的线路全长68.6公里。据《扬子晚报》报道，列车运行速度将达到每小时 160 公里。
Traversing the districts of Minhang and Xuhui, as well as Pudong New Area, the link will comprise nine stops; Hongqiao, Qibao, Huajing, Sanlin South, Zhangjiang, Dujia Area, Pudong Airport, another airport station as yet unconfirmed and Shanghai East Railway Station.
线路途经闵行区、徐汇区以及浦东新区，共设九站；虹桥、七宝、华泾、三林南、张江、杜家区、浦东机场、另一个尚未确定的机场站以及上海东站。
As well as linking Pudong and Hongqiao for our convenience, also worthy of mention along the way is Dujia Area as another stopping-off point for Shanghai Disneyland.
除了连接浦东和虹桥的便利之外，沿途值得一提的是杜家片区，它是上海迪士尼乐园的另一个中转站。
Interestingly, the new project has a deep relationship with Nanjing. Given that we know a thing or two about large-scale tunnels, many of the construction enterprises involved are from Nanjing.
有趣的是，新项目与南京有着深厚的渊源。由于我们对大型隧道略知一二，参与其中的施工企业很多都来自南京。
According to Yu Pengchen, shield manager for the project, the shield machine is basically is an upgraded version of that used to bore the Yangtze River Tunnel for Nanjing Metro Line 10 a decade ago.
据该项目盾构经理余鹏辰介绍，该盾构机基本上是十年前南京地铁十号线长江隧道盾构机的升级版。
And it wouldn’t be China if there were not a few engineering marvels involved.
如果没有一些工程奇迹，那就不会是中国了。
With the underground section running parallel to the Shanghai-Hangzhou high-speed railway, the two shall at one point be just 8.1 metres apart.
地下区间与沪杭高铁平行，两者仅相距8.1米。
Over in the section under the G60 Shanghai-Kunming Expressway, the minimum clear distance between the tunnel and the foundations for one of the road’s bridges will be only 0.65 metres, a clearance without precedent in China.
在G60沪昆高速公路下段，隧道与其中一座桥梁基础之间的最小净距仅为0.65米，这一净距在国内尚无先例。
Best of all though, being a train means we can be confident of getting to the airport on time. After all, with Shanghai’s traffic, how long the airport transfer bus takes at present is anyone’s guess.
最重要的是，作为火车意味着我们可以有信心准时到达机场。毕竟，以上海的交通流量，目前机场接送巴士需要多长时间谁也说不准。
The new link is slated to open by the end of 2024. Mark the date. There’s a chance that by then, international travel might well be a realistic undertaking.
新链接预计于 2024 年底开放。请标记日期。到那时，国际旅行很可能成为一项现实的事业。
