Railway passengers across India ran into login delays, slow searches and failed payments on the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) website and mobile app during peak festive booking hours on Tuesday, November 10, according to passenger complaints reported by the Daily Jagran and outage tracker Downdetector.

Source: Daily Jagran

Downdetector had registered 744 complaints by 11:12 am on Tuesday, several times the usual level, the Daily Jagran reported. Users said the home page failed to load in some cases and that transactions failed during payment, with Tatkal bookings among those hit.

IRCTC, in a clarification reported by IANS, said reports of a complete outage were not accurate. The online reservation portal remained up and operational through the period, the company said, but performance was delayed by an exceptionally high volume of simultaneous logins. IRCTC said the disruption was temporary and that e-ticketing services through all channels have since returned to normal.

Source: IANS via TeluguNow

The surge was driven by festive travel demand around Diwali and Chhath Puja, with heavy booking pressure for trains towards Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal, and the 8:00 am advance reservation opening window was among the hardest hit, according to reports summarising IRCTC's statement.

What IRCTC says happened

No shutdown: the portal stayed operational. What passengers felt was delayed access caused by very high concurrent logins in peak festive hours. Services are now normal on the website, the app and other channels.

The episode is the latest reminder of the strain India's festive travel season puts on the railway booking system, when millions of passengers try to book within the same short windows. IRCTC said it is continuing technical upgrades to improve the reliability of the reservation system.