The online website and mobile app of the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), the e-ticketing platform of Indian Railways, were temporarily unavailable on Thursday (December 26). IRCTC, the digital arm of Indian Railways handling e-ticketing, confirmed that the outage was caused by scheduled maintenance activities.
The timing of the technical issue is particularly inconvenient, as many passengers depend on the platform for booking and managing their train tickets during the busy holiday season.
Why there is an outage at Indian railways ticket booking site?
“Due to maintenance activity, e-ticketing service will not be available. Please try later,” IRCTC said in a statement.
This marks the second disruption of the IRCTC portal in December, raising concerns among frequent users. In a separate advisory, the company recommended that passengers wishing to cancel their tickets could do so by calling customer care or emailing their ticket details for a Ticket Deposit Receipt (TDR). IRCTC has provided the following contact details for cancellation assistance: Customer Care Numbers: 14646, 08044647999, 08035734999. Email: etickets@irctc.co.in
IRCTC stock down nearly 1%
Meanwhile, the IRCTC stock is down nearly 1% in today’s trading session. Over the past week, the stock has fallen by almost 4%. What’s concerning is that, on a year-to-date (YTD) basis, the stock has delivered a negative return of over 10% for investors in 2024 so far.
IRCTC new ticketing rules
The outage comes just weeks after Indian Railways implemented significant changes to its ticket booking policies. On November 1, the Advance Reservation Period (ARP) for train bookings was reduced from 120 days to 60 days, shortening the window for passengers to secure tickets. This change, aimed at reducing over-bookings and cancellations, has sparked mixed reactions.
Indian Railways justified the move as a means to better track actual travel demand and improve planning for special trains during peak seasons. The policy is also designed to discourage ‘No-Show’ passengers, who book tickets but fail to cancel or use them. Railway Board officials noted that 21% of reservations made 61 to 120 days in advance were cancelled, and 5% of passengers neither canceled their bookings nor traveled.