Unable to book tickets online, say passengers

The Indian Railways opened bookings on Thursday morning, however, people complained about being unable to book tickets online along with non-availability of trains on few routes.

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Union railway minister Piyush Goyal had announced that 200 trains will start from June 1 across India. The tickets are available only online, at the Indian Rail Catering Tourism Corporation(IRCTC) website and mobile application. Physical ticket counters and booking through agents have been suspended from March 22.

People complained of errors being displayed at IRCTC’s mobile application. “I want to travel to Rajasthan and tried to book a ticket thrice from the application but it showed that bookings were suspended and later an error message displayed on the screen,” said Aarti Singh, a Vidyavihar resident.

Some also took to Twitter to complain. “As railway said yesterday that we can book ticket from 21st may onwards at 10 a.m. of 1st June ticket or so on but still I am not seeing any option for booking the ticket for the list of 200 trains now 2 PM.” tweeted @Alok_kr999

“@IRCTCofficial As per Railway minister yesterday tweet Normal trains booking started from 21 st may by 10 am... but still IRCTC Not working for booking.So when Booking started...” tweeted @ABHIMAN21221117

The IRCTC, however, clarified that the bookings for rail journeys started at 10 am on Thursday. “Website is working fine. Tickets are getting booked,” tweeted IRCTC.