Train passengers face harrowing time over IRCTC website glitches

Hyderabad: Flaws in the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) website have caused inconvenience to rail passengers, with many raising grievances over irregularities during train ticket bookings.

Some passengers have pointed out frequent app crashes and logouts as major issues causing inconvenience. Additionally, IRCTC’s recent collaboration with private payment apps to boost booking rates through its official portal and app has not proven effective. There are also numerous complaints about delayed ticket confirmations after booking through the portal, particularly affecting consumers trying to book Tatkal tickets.

Robin Zaccheus, a resident of Secunderabad, said, “In May, I tried to book tickets from Delhi to Hyderabad using the IRCTC app, but it repeatedly failed due to frequent crashes and logouts. Many passengers are trying to book tickets between 11:00 am and 11:30 am, causing the app to crash and log out frequently. This situation makes it easier for agents and partners to book almost all the tickets. Besides the frequent logouts and app freezes, there is an issue with the Captcha code lacking AI.”

“Also, according to the Right To Information (RTI) obtained from Railways, the user capacity for booking train tickets is stated as 26,000 per minute. However, the annual report of the IRCTC claims that the user capacity for booking train tickets is 28,000 per minute as per RTI,” he added.

“Regarding Tatkal bookings, including the premium version, many people face issues booking train seats at 10 am due to freezing or crashing problems during the process. It is frustrating for customers trying to use the app for seat reservations. I, too, faced this issue as the Paytm app (a third-party app) showed the waiting list from 10:00 am to 10:20 am and allowed ticket bookings with some assurance of confirmation chances, unlike the official IRCTC app. RailwaySeva states that partners and agents are not permitted to book Tatkal tickets, yet Paytm users were able to book tickets using the IRCTC login requirements. Why is Indian Railways giving more preference to Paytm over IRCTC officials,” Mohan, another consumer, questioned.