IRCTC Website Down: Indian Railways Ticket Booking Site Crashes For Third Time This Month; People Face Trouble

The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) app and website experienced another outage on December 31. This marks the third time in December that users have faced disruptions. The outages have consistently occurred around 9:50 am, just before tatkal ticket bookings open. This timing has led to significant inconvenience for passengers trying to secure train tickets.

Users attempting to access the IRCTC website were met with a message stating, "Booking and Cancellation for All site will not be available for next hour. Inconvenience caused is deeply regretted. FOR CANCELLATION/FILE TDR, PLEASE CALL AT CUSTOMER CARE NO. 14646,08044647999 & 08035734999 OR MAIL AT [email protected]." This message highlighted the temporary unavailability of services.

Impact on Users

The outage has caused widespread disruption for passengers attempting to book train tickets. Many users took to social media platforms to express their frustration over the repeated outages. According to Downdetector, about 47% of users couldn't access the website, while 42% encountered issues with the app. Additionally, 10% faced problems completing ticket bookings.

Further data from Downdetector indicated that the outage began around 10 am, leading to login issues, difficulties in searching schedules and fares, and transaction errors. Until approximately 9:48 am, there were no reports of any outages. The IRCTC's message suggested that services would resume within an hour, but this could result in users missing out on booking tatkal tickets during the limited window available.

Technical Challenges

This series of outages has raised concerns among passengers who rely on timely bookings for their travel plans. The repeated disruptions have highlighted potential technical challenges faced by IRCTC in managing high traffic volumes during peak booking times.

The recurring nature of these outages suggests a need for improved infrastructure or system upgrades to handle increased demand effectively. Passengers are hopeful that IRCTC will address these issues promptly to prevent further inconvenience.