NEW DELHI: The Railways is doing some loud thinking on the need to establish a "special security force" to protect passengers in trains. "The idea is being considered. It will take some time as constitutional amendment is needed... Such forces exist in some European countries and the United States," J.P. Batra, Chairman, Railway Board, told presspersons in reply to a query on whether the Government was considering the measure , particularly in view of incidents including the killing of a DIG by intruders in a train.

He also announced the speeding up of 140 trains as part of the new rationalised railway timetable being introduced from July 1. The speeding up and turning of 140 trains into super-fast trains was made possible following completion of the first phase of large-scale revision of the timetable after 128 years. The second phase would be completed by November end and more trains would be speeded up.

"The time taken for the journey will be reduced by one hour for 85 trains, by one-two hours for 31 trains, by two-three hours for 16 trains and more than five hours for eight trains," he said.

Similarly, 34 mail/express trains were speeded up by 90-135 minutes and 2422 and 2444 New Delhi-Bhubaneshwar Rajdhani was speeded up by 80 minutes. The Railways was in the process of identifying more trains for making them super-fast, while care was being taken to ensure that the trains had convenient timings at the originating and terminating stations.

Mr. Batra also referred to other initiatives taken by the Railways: conversion of all coaches into air brake, resulting in better mobility, safety, maintenance and optimisation of stock usage.

He said a lot of progress had been made in relation to the announcements made by Railway Minister Lalu Prasad during his budget speech. Four air-conditioned `Garib Raths' would start operating from October 2.

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