IRCTC Website Crashes Again During Festive Rush, Passengers Struggle to Book Tickets

Passengers across the country were left stranded online on Saturday morning as the IRCTC website and mobile app went down once again, halting train ticket bookings during one of the busiest travel periods of the year.

Users trying to access the platform were met with the frustrating error message: "This site is currently unreachable, please try after some time." The outage began around 10:00 AM, coinciding with the opening of the Tatkal AC booking window, when thousands log in simultaneously to secure last-minute tickets.

For many, the website's crash meant failed payments, repeated logouts, and endless page reloads - a nightmare scenario during the festive rush. "Every time I try to book, it shows 'server unavailable.' I've been trying for over 30 minutes," wrote one frustrated user on X (formerly Twitter).

This is the second major IRCTC outage this festive season, coming just days after a similar breakdown disrupted bookings ahead of Diwali. Although the system was restored within a few hours last time, the repeated failures are testing the patience of lakhs of passengers who rely solely on IRCTC for their travel plans.

So far, IRCTC has not released any official statement on the cause of the current issue or when ticketing services will be restored.

The disruption has also been recorded on Downdetector, where reports of login failures and booking errors spiked sharply around 10 AM.

Meanwhile, as passengers struggle online, the North Eastern Railway has stepped up measures on the ground - adding 186 special trains, opening extra ticket counters, and strengthening crowd management at major stations such as Gorakhpur to handle the festive rush.

But for now, with the IRCTC portal still down, frustrated travelers are left refreshing their screens - and their patience - as they wait for the country's largest ticketing platform to get back on track.