Nowadays, the majority of people book their train and flight tickets online using the easy method. And as we all know, for booking train tickets the most used website is IRCTC. Even Though the online ticket booking process through the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation is effective and hassle-free, sometimes passengers do face technical issues and something like that is witnessed again.
Train passengers allotted seats that do not exist- IRCTC glitch
Recently, a strange incident took place with a passenger from Lucknow. The passenger booked the tickets online and find out later that the seats allotted to him by IRCTC don’t even exist.
This weird incident happened on 14204 Lucknow-Varanasi Intercity Express. A passenger named Vijay Shukla was allotted seat numbers 74 and 75 in the C1 coach when he booked his train tickets online. Surprisingly, when he boarded the train with his brother, they found out that the coach had only 73 seats. Seat numbers 74 and 75 don’t even exist.
Here is what the passenger, Vijay Shukla, whose allotted seats by IRCTC couldn’t be found said
When Vijay spoke to the traveling ticket examiner (TTE) about his situation, the TTE said,
“A traveling ticket examiner (TTE) told us that such instances are common and that he has complained about the goof-up in ticket bookings to the department concerned and higher officials. But no action was taken so far to resolve the tech glitch”
Shukla further added that the TTE informed him that there were 75 seats in another coach, but the coach allotted to them had only 73 seats.
The TTE replied,
“As the server shows 75 seats in the coach, 75 people are allotted seats there.
The TTE also said that he faces the brunt of passengers who shout and hurl abuses at him more often.
Did Shukla and his brother get a seat on the train?
Yes, Vijay and his brother were allotted different seats afterward.
Station director of the Charbagh railway station, Ashish Singh also commented on the tech glitch, he said,
“This problem was brought to our attention 15 days ago. We have relayed the information to the Centre for Railway Information Systems (CRIS), responsible for maintaining a majority of key information systems of Indian Railways. If the problem persists, we will look into it.”
Glitches on the IRCTC website and application are not new to anyone, the services get impacted due to technical issues frequently. The booking confirmations are delayed sometimes as the website often works at a slow rate during the night.
Customers also face issues with the payment interface when they pay their ticket booking price through online modes and internet banking.
If you have faced any problems while booking your train tickets through IRCTC? Let us know in the comments.