Passengers across India reported widespread disruptions on the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) website and app on October 25, as thousands rushed to book train tickets ahead of the festive season. Several users took to social media to express frustration over technical glitches on the booking portal, claiming they were unable to log in or complete transactions.
For many, the website’s crash meant failed payments, repeated logouts, and endless page reloads – a nightmare scenario during the festive rush. This is the second major IRCTC outage this festive season, coming just days after a similar breakdown disrupted bookings ahead of Diwali.
Although the system was restored within a few hours last time, the repeated failures are testing the patience of lakhs of passengers who rely solely on IRCTC for their travel plans. So far, IRCTC has not released any official statement on the cause of the current issue or when ticketing services will be restored. The disruption has also been recorded on Downdetector, where reports of login failures and booking errors spiked sharply around morning time.
Meanwhile, as passengers struggle online, the North Eastern Railway has stepped up measures on the ground – adding 186 special trains, opening extra ticket counters, and strengthening crowd management at major stations such as Gorakhpur to handle the festive rush.
