A man, like many of us, tried booking a train ticket from Delhi to Bihar’s Darbhanga via the Tatkal window offered by the Indian Railways. However, when Sonu Nigam Singh opened the IRCTC app to make the booking, a pop-up stated that the “booking hasn’t started yet” and advised him to “try after some time”. What happened in the next three minutes was beyond his understanding. When he refreshed the app, the same train already had a waiting list of 41.
Singh said that even with a high-speed internet connection, he was unable to secure a Tatkal ticket. He shared his ordeal online.
‘Tatkal ticket booking reality’
“Tatkal ticket booking reality,” wrote Singh while sharing two screenshots from the IRCTC app. He added, “Booking starts at 10 am, Garib Rath Express has 240 seats under Tatkal quota.”
He then claimed that at 10:01 am, the app showed a pop-up which stated “booking not started”. “Then app crashes and starts buffering,” he continued, before adding, “App responds. Now it shows status as waiting list 41.” It is to be noted that the Tatkal window to book tickets opens at 10:00 am for AC class (2A/3A/CC/EC/3E) and at 11:00 am for Non- AC class (SL/FC/2S).
As per the screenshots shared by Nigam, the pop-up stated, “Booking not yet started for the selected quota and class. Please try after some time.” Although the screenshots are from October 2024, they have now gone viral with over a million views.
“Even with high-speed Internet, it’s close to impossible to book a Tatkal ticket. No idea how agents confirm that they will get it done,” Sonu Nigam went on to say.
“How does it happen remains a mystery,” he further added.
Internet makes similar claims
Reacting to Nigam’s post, one social media user claimed that he came to know that agents have special software to book train tickets.
“There is an app which will give you either a confirmed ticket or a 3x refund. Try that and support this intentional manipulation. Legalising something which is illegal is at play here. And no one’s asking the right question,” added another.
A third termed it as a “big scam”. “Many ticket buyers easily get confirmed tickets from some so-called agents, but when they try to book online or offline, they always face too many problems.”
IRCTC issues statement
IRCTC, in a statement, acknowledged that due to high traffic, train ticket bookings may take longer than usual and said that efforts are underway to improve the user experience for all passengers.
“During peak booking timings, particularly during Tatkal due to high demand, seat reservations are often filled rapidly due to the high volume of users accessing the system simultaneously. As the system processes multiple requests in real-time, processing may take additional time in case of a high number of parallel requests being processed,” IRCTC said in a statement.
It added, “We are constantly working to enhance the booking experience, ensuring smoother and more efficient service for all users.”