IRCTC not down, here’s why thousands of users couldn’t book train tickets online today

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As Diwali and Chhath Puja approach, thousands of travelers faced frustration on Thursday while trying to book train tickets online. Many assumed the IRCTC website and app were down, but the truth is different.

The surge in traffic during the opening of Tatkal ticket bookings caused temporary service disruptions. Users reported seeing messages on the site saying: “Booking and Cancellation for all site will not be available for next hour. Inconvenience caused is deeply regretted.” For cancellations or TDR filings, customers were advised to contact IRCTC customer care.

According to Downdetector, more than 5,000 complaints came in from users experiencing issues. Travelers took to X (formerly Twitter) to vent their frustration. Some pointed out that such problems seem to happen every year during festival seasons, urging IRCTC to improve server capacity.

Despite these hiccups, IRCTC confirmed that its platform was not actually down. The temporary delays were a result of overloaded servers handling unusually high traffic during peak booking hours. By midday, the website and app were back up and running smoothly.

This incident highlights the challenge of high-demand online ticketing during festivals and the need for platforms like IRCTC to scale their systems to handle massive user influxes efficiently.

For travelers, the key takeaway is to plan ahead and be patient, as the platform can get temporarily slow during busy times but is not truly offline.