IRCTC website crashes again during peak Tatkal hours, users slam ticketing downtime

Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation’s (IRCTC) website and app faced a outage during the crucial Tatkal booking hours on Thursday morning, leaving users frustrated.

Complaints began surfacing on outage tracking platform Downdetector at 9:48 am, with the number of reports peaking during the Tatkal booking window. Users attempting to book tickets were greeted with a message: “Due to maintenance activity, e-ticketing service will not be available for the next one hour. Please try later.”

Social media platforms were flooded with complaints as users expressed disappointment over the timing of the maintenance. One user wrote, “Trying to book a Tatkal ticket and it’s been 36 minutes past 10 o’clock, and IRCTC app & website is not even going to the login page. Looks like a massive outage across platforms for everyone.”

The user added, “Not sure when #IRCTC is gonna upgrade their platform. Vande Bharat trains aren’t gonna do any good when the ticketing platform is like this. Why would you put a maintenance downtime during the Tatkal booking window?”

"Extremely disappointed with the IRCTC website. It crashes or slows down almost every time, especially during Tatkal booking hours! Millions of users rely on it, yet the experience remains frustrating," wrote another user.

The booking service reportedly resumed around 10:40 am.

Tatkal tickets, often in high demand, are available for booking starting 10 am for AC classes and 11am for sleeper classes, making the frequent outages inconvenient for travellers.

This is second such outage in the last three weeks.

On December 9, the website experienced downtime during a high-traffic period due to maintenance activity.

The outage, which began at 9:39 am, minutes before the Tatkal booking window, disrupted travel plans for thousands. Complaints peaked around 11:00am, with over 1,500 reports on Downdetector. Social media was flooded with criticism, with users questioning IRCTC's ability to handle high traffic and alleging malpractice during Tatkal booking hours.