记者来鸿：修高铁二十年之囧

choi

克里斯汀•弗雷泽, 记者来鸿：修高铁二十年之囧. BBC Chinese, Feb 21, 2013.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/zhongwen/si ... ighspeed_rail.shtml

, which is translated from

Christian Fraser, Italy's 10-Metre Alpine Mega-Tunnel. BBC, Feb 7, 2013.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-21450740
("Of greater interest to British tourists - skiers like me - is that the journey time from London to Milan will be cut to just six hours" via high-speed trains, following construction of the Lyon-Turin segment)  

My comment:
(a) An companion video clip (02:44 in length):

Christian Fraser,An Inside Look at Work on New Alps Tunnel. BBC, Feb 7, 2013.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-21363705
(b) The video but not the English report mentions "TAV," which stands for

Treno Alta Velocità
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treno_Alta_Velocit%C3%A0

* treno (Italian noun masculine): "train"

(c) Lyon
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyon
(section 1 History)

The ancient spellings of the city Lyon are
(i) Lugdunum in Latin, and
(ii) Lug[o]dunon (and a couple of variants) in Celtic. For the latter, see Lugus
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lugus
(section 3 3 Toponyms and ethnonyms)

(d) motorway (n; First Known Use 1903): "chiefly British: SUPERHIGHWAY"
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/motorway
(e) Francois Pelletier
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fran%C3%A7ois_Pelletier
(f) Susa Valley
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susa_Valley
(The valley takes its name from the [Italian border] city of Susa which lies in the valley)
(g) The report said, "Freight trains will zoom to and fro, boosting the shambling economies of southern Europe."

shamble (vi): "to walk awkwardly with dragging feet: SHUFFLE"
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/shamble

compare shambles (n)
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/shambles

(h) The report concluded by saying,

"People have tried to cross this valley in all kinds of ways - one of the first was Hannibal, the great warrior-leader of Carthage whose own transalpine adventure ended in Susa in 218BC.

"Hannibal's journey across the mountains, with 20,000 soldiers and 37 fighting elephants, took him just 16 days. No-one stood in his way

* Hannibal
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hannibal
(247 – 183/182 BC; section 2.1 Overland journey to Italy: "His exact route over the Alps has been the source of scholarly dispute ever since. (Polybius, the surviving ancient account closest in time to Hannibal's campaign, reports that the route was already debated.)")