Rail passengers face online booking hiccups

Hyderabad: During this festive season, once again, the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) website has been giving a hard time to rail passengers who tried booking tatkal ticket. Most of the people have raised their grievances over irregularities while booking train tickets due to server issues.

A few passengers pointed out that, they were trying to access the website but while trying to book the ticket, the screen stated ‘booking and cancellation for all sites would not be available for the next hour. The inconvenience caused is deeply regretted.’ Due to this many faced a nightmarish experience in booking tickets. They also alleged that this type of irregularities are not new in the website, they occur often.

“In regards to tatkal booking, majority of people face issues with booking train seats from 10 am due to freezing or crash issues of the site. It is pathetic for customers to use the app for booking seats in trains. I am also one of the victim, recently when I tried to book an ticket from Hyderabad to Vijaywada suddenly the screen disappeared. Left with no option, I was forced to book ticket in private bus,” said Sai Teja, IT employee. “The IRCTC website is unable to handle the capacity of user usage on this site.

The main reason is that user load capacity is not improvised and it will be better if it is improvised. After the website got restored, despite of complaining, there was no response,” said Robin, another passenger, who recently tried to book a ticket. “Don’t know why the Railway Department does not modify the site. Very often while booking tickets I have been facing server issue, as the site keeps freezing or crashing during the booking procedure. It is pathetic for customers to use the app for booking seats in trains,” said, another passenger, who also tried to book a ticket.