As the New Year approaches, many travelers planning their train journeys through the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) website and mobile app are facing significant disruptions. This marks the third outage in December 2024, leaving users frustrated and struggling to book tickets for their trips.
The website, where the primary booking for Indian trains happens, failed to operate smoothly, particularly at peak times, with this breakdown coinciding with the eagerly anticipated Tatkal booking window.
IRCTC Users Experience Disruptions
Many users complained of a widespread outage of the IRCTC website and app, making it impossible for several of them to log in or book tickets. Those who managed to log in experienced significant delays and hassles, especially when trying to book emergency (Tatkal) tickets at 10 AM. This issue has created a wide range of complaints on social media, with users expressing frustration and questioning the timing of the outage.
One user took to social media to voice his concern as follows: “@RailMinIndia IRCTC website is down from 10 am today, I am not able to book Tatkal tickets. When I called customer care, they said the site is under maintenance. Just want to ask, who keeps a site under maintenance during working hours?”
Ticket Booking Alternatives
When the site or application is down in IRCTC, booking tickets remains to be challenging for the traveling public through alternative methods of booking ticket. Even if online tickets are not accessible, at least one will have tickets booked at railway stations through counters of PRS. All these counters act as some physical space through which travelers can reserve their tickets manually.
For tickets, PRS counters work from 8 AM to 8 PM, but only from Mondays to Saturdays as well. Therefore, a passenger can visit any of the counters to book tickets in case the online sites are facing some technical snag or other, thus being able to make a reservation apart from the IRCTC website.
Step During Out-of-Site Hours
It does not matter if the tickets need to be cancelled in case of an IRCTC outage. The procedure is the same as always. The passengers can raise a TDR for the cancellation of tickets during the downtime. The process for raising TDR can be done by contacting customer care at the following numbers: 14646, 08044647999, or 08035734999. Users can also send an email to etickets@irctc.co.in to get the cancellation done.
Despite these alternatives, many users have voiced frustration with IRCTC’s system, especially when cancellations are needed at short notice. The frequent outages have led some to question the reliability of the service, particularly during peak booking periods.
The latest disruption has seen widespread outcry on social media with users complaining about the recurrent problems on the IRCTC platform. Some of the users have shared their experiences, citing the timing of the outages during peak windows such as Tatkal, as well as slow responses from the app.
One user commented: “IRCTC server down, no Tatkal booking. #IRCTC @IRCTCofficial @RailMinIndia,” along with a screenshot that indicated the website wouldn’t load. Another user said: “Whenever I try to book a train ticket, I face some problems in the IRCTC app. And if you open it, the app runs so slow that the tickets get exhausted. The railways should take some innovative steps for ticket booking.”
As travelers prepare for the New Year holidays, these technical disruptions have raised concerns about the platform’s capacity to handle the growing demand for train bookings. Many are calling for improvements in IRCTC’s infrastructure to ensure smooth user experiences during peak travel times.
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