New Delhi: Just when millions of Indians began locking in their travel plans for the Diwali holidays, the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation
(IRCTC) platform crashed, disrupting both its website and mobile app. The issue struck during one of the busiest ticket booking periods of the year, leaving passengers unable to reserve tickets, particularly under the Tatkal and immediate quota services.
The outage, which began early in the morning, triggered chaos among users trying to grab last-minute tickets for festival travel. Social media platforms filled up fast with angry posts and memes as users shared screenshots of error messages reading “site down” and “technical issue.” Many said they lost their chance to secure seats on packed routes while waiting for the system to reload.
Source: Downdetector
Diwali rush meets IRCTC downtime
The timing could not have been worse. Every year, the weeks before Diwali bring a surge in online bookings as people travel home or plan short vacations. This morning, that rush collided with a technical failure on the country’s most widely used public ticketing platform.
According to reports, the system began showing errors just when Tatkal bookings opened. IRCTC officials later confirmed that the disruption was caused by “technical issues” and assured users that their teams were “working to restore normal service as fast as possible.” But for many, the damage was already done. Trains on popular routes like Delhi–Patna, Mumbai–Varanasi, and Chennai–Kolkata were quickly marked “waitlisted” once the platform came back online.
Social media meltdown
On X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram, users expressed their frustration in familiar tones. Some posted screenshots of failed transactions with captions like “Happy Diwali from IRCTC,” while others joked that they would have reached their destinations faster if they had walked to the counter instead.
Downdetector.in, a platform that tracks service outages, showed a massive spike in complaints from across India, confirming the scale of the problem.
A few passengers said they resorted to visiting nearby railway counters to book tickets manually. Travel agents too saw a sudden spike in walk-ins from stranded users. Others claimed that by the time the platform came back online, tickets for several high-demand trains were already gone.
Repeated problem during peak seasons
This is not the first time IRCTC has struggled to handle festival traffic. Over the years, the system has repeatedly faced slowdowns and breakdowns during high-traffic events like Diwali, Holi, and summer vacation rush. Officials have often cited “unprecedented load” and “backend congestion” as the main reasons.
Despite upgrades in recent years, the platform still seems to hit breaking point when millions log in simultaneously for Tatkal tickets, which open at 10 am for AC classes and 11 am for sleeper classes. The sudden spikes in traffic often overwhelm the system, showing how difficult it is to maintain seamless digital infrastructure for a country of India’s size.
What users can do now
IRCTC has advised passengers to use alternate booking methods until services stabilize. These include:
- Visiting physical railway reservation counters.
- Using authorized travel agents.
- Waiting for official updates on the IRCTC Twitter handle and website.
For now, many users are hoping that services return before the evening booking window opens.
