IRCTC Ticket Booking: Ahead of the festive season, desperate railway passengers who have been seeking travel tickets for the upcoming Diwali and Chhath took to social media platforms to vent their frustrations over the malfunctioning of the IRCTC website. In multiple social media posts, the residents of several states, including Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal, have alleged that they were not able to book the tickets in advance due to technical issues.
Passengers Slam Authorities
The passengers have alleged that they were not able to book tickets, as the IRCTC's website stopped functioning for almost an hour, possibly due to the high demands. They further stated that tickets were not available when the website began working, leaving them empty-handed.
I tried booking a ticket on irctc app in the morning at 8 am and the website was down,if it was down how did the tickets vanish in 4-5min.?Irctc running some kind of scam where normal passengers are not getting tickets @IRCTCofficial @AshwiniVaishnaw @PMOIndia #Big_ScaminIRCTC pic.twitter.com/eIquAswMHJ
— Er. Mritunjay kumar Yadav (@ErMritunjay92) September 8, 2026
"From 8 AM to 9 AM, the IRCTC booking site is almost completely down for ordinary citizens. Repeatedly, it only shows the error "Experiencing High Load, Please try later". How is the common public supposed to book tickets? Is this what Digital India is?" Mehtab Siddiqi, one of the complainants, said in a post on X.
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Infra Getting Worse: Passengers
Another passenger took a sharp dig at the railways by stating that while the nation is developing infrastructure for bullet trains, the basics have not been fixed yet. "Please see the situation of the IRCTC website. Diwali Booking has opened, and the website has crashed. How people can go to their home. We are developing a bullet train, but basic infrastructure is getting worse day by day," Ajay Dhimmar, another passenger, stated.
"I tried booking a ticket on the IRCTC app in the morning at 8 am, and the website was down. If it was down, how did the tickets vanish in 4-5 min? IRCTC is running some kind of scam where normal passengers are not getting tickets," the third user alleged. However, the IRCTC or the railway authorities have not addressed the issue yet.
The trains to the northern states face a significant surge in passengers ahead of Durga Puja, Diwali, and Chhath. While the railways operate hundreds of festive special trains, they remain crowded, with thousands of passengers bound to travel by bus.