# IRCTC improved, finally !



## dashing.sujay (Jun 5, 2014)

Well, how quick do you remember booking a tatkal ticket on IRCTC ? Been booking for years, I get to book every now and then a tatkal ticket, every week (coincidentally), so my experience said anything below 10:10 was very good; luck was on your side.

But yesterday, I booked one at 10:05. Saw that IRCTC had introduced a new site which was very very fast (same as TDF or any normal site), that too at the time of peak load (tatkal hours).

And today, I booked a ticket at 10:02. I wasn't believing my eyes.

Many other people are having same experience, so it pretty much says that I wasn't lucky. IRCTC has really done something. Great.

Achche din ?

PS: A down side of this is the people queuing overnight at station counters will be easily outperformed by the _e_ prowess, which I have always admitted is not good for majority. I'm not saying that IRCTC shouldn't have improved, but this good wasn't required. A balance has to be made between load of the server and the respective allotment of the tickets to cater both groups.


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## Hrishi (Jun 5, 2014)

Oh...really ????  I will give it a try then... This is like a surprise.
This was desperately needed.


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## sujoyp (Jun 5, 2014)

yaah its much better...I have visited 3 time in last one week and its quick enough


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## whitestar_999 (Jun 5, 2014)

is this really true?i never booked tatkal ticket but the last few times(in april & may) i tried irctc site ~10:30AM it was slow so i automatically assumed tatkal ticket chance is very low.for normal tickets i agree site opens faster than before.


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## sling-shot (Jun 5, 2014)

Link please.


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## hsr (Jun 5, 2014)

In my personal opinion, the tatkal system should not exist in the first place. Sure, it serves as the last minute option for the many but is it really the case?
I've had the joy of travelling in general to Bangalore because the tatkal queue was too long. The frustration of people is immense I tell you. Everyone on that queue said this "If only the site loaded faster, I'd have never been here".


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## arijitsinha (Jun 5, 2014)

Yeah.. just today, my friend tried to open irctc, at 10:30.. I laughed, it is not even possible to login at this time. but my surprise, it was logged in and Searching train was smooth.

I could not proceed further due to the stupid irctc restriction, 2 Taatkal ticket from same IP during 10-12 A.M (I was trying from office). But it is really fast now. May be all the people got frustrated and left booking from irctc..


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## dashing.sujay (Jun 5, 2014)

sling-shot said:


> Link please.



What for ? This is not a news.



hsr said:


> In my personal opinion, the tatkal system should not exist in the first place. Sure, it serves as the last minute option for the many but is it really the case?
> I've had the joy of travelling in general to Bangalore because the tatkal queue was too long. The frustration of people is immense I tell you. Everyone on that queue said this "If only the site loaded faster, I'd have never been here".



You contradict yourself. Tatkal is a boon for last minute travellers. Most of the plan is execeuted normally within a week or max 10 days, and then you find out that there are no tickets available. Tatkal kicks in there. It's a life saver.

Problem is our population. No matter how much trains you introduce, how much boggies you attach, they will still be full upto the brim. So the urgent travellers will always find themselves no where to go.

And for frustration, if 2 lakh people on any day rant about site being slower, then 10 lakh people also rant about queue being longer & longer and, slower.

- - - Updated - - -

----

For people doubting, please go ahead and try, but don't blame me when luck kicks your ass 

Earlier, to book a tatkal ticket, you had to be logged in before 9:45 or max :50, otherwise you just won't be able to. And once the timer hit 9:59, that moving circle went into an infinite loop with a run time error.


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## hsr (Jun 5, 2014)

See, what I meant is tatkal system is not what we should have imo, just a single waiting queue. People who book online will be clubbed with people who take tickets from the stations. Introduce a token system that puts both of them in the same list and we have a solution?


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## TheSloth (Jun 5, 2014)

[MENTION=22610]hsr[/MENTION]: If person is cripple and his/her home is far from railway station then _ebooking_ comes to use.


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## mastercool8695 (Jun 5, 2014)

this might give a solution : only a part of the Tickets are available online. 

Can we book tatkal via phone ?
that would have been better for people living in remote areas , far away from tatkal booking stations.

- - - Updated - - -

checked the website, it hasn't changed its the same one  
BTW, I checked only the interface.


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## ravi847 (Jun 5, 2014)

The website has a special version which shows up only when you try to open the site during the tatkal hours..
People who wish to book tatkal ticket should use that e-wallet option and transfer some money in it so that your transaction is fast.
The ticket is not booked until  the transaction is completed and Irctc has processed it.


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## kaz (Jun 6, 2014)

lightningfassst said:


> [MENTION=22610]hsr[/MENTION]: If person is cripple and his/her home is far from railway station then _ebooking_ comes to use.



hehe I have never visited a booking counter...And believe me for the past 4years I would have booked around 50tickets actually more than that

- - - Updated - - -

Cross checked 15 tickets since 3rd April'14 only 

- - - Updated - - -

BTW new site is cool and fast..Wasn't there 3-4 days ago....


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## Vignesh B (Jun 6, 2014)

Wow, mission accomplished. Bought a tatkal ticket by 10:05am. And probably I was the last one to get the ticket as there was a single ticket remaining when the payment stage had reached. IRCTC does seem to be improved by leaps and bounds.
Today, morning only me and my Dad were discussing on how to get a ticket, as here the queue for tatkal seem to start 2 days before only! That is to book on 6th, you need to stand in the queue from 4th night only. 
Read this thread in the morning, told my Dad to lets give a try. We don't have anything to lose.
I don't usually use IRCTC to book tatkal except when its on some low traffic route and is off-season. The main reason being that the tickets gets over by 10:05 or maximum 10:10 in the routes that I need to travel and the queue is not so long in the counter inside the campus(except days like today - holidays+ counselling) and IRCTC doesn't budge until 11am.


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## kaz (Jun 6, 2014)

Vignesh B said:


> Wow, mission accomplished. Bought a tatkal ticket by 10:05am. And probably I was the last one to get the ticket as there was a single ticket remaining when the payment stage had reached. IRCTC does seem to be improved by leaps and bounds.


Congrats 



> Today, morning only me and my Dad were discussing on how to get a ticket, as here the queue for tatkal seem to start 2 days before only! That is to book on 6th, you need to stand in the queue from 4th night only.


What? Who does that? Why don't they start travelling on foot since then


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## Vignesh B (Jun 6, 2014)

kaz said:


> What? Who does that? Why don't they start travelling on foot since then


Usually its students who come to the counter inside the campus. And plenty of them are from far off places.
You need to stand in queue for 2 days + 2-3 days travel. almost a week gone!
Air travel is good but only if your luggage is sparse.


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## kaz (Jun 6, 2014)

Vignesh B said:


> Usually its students who come to the counter inside the campus. And plenty of them are from far off places.
> You need to stand in queue for 2 days + 2-3 days travel. almost a week gone!
> Air travel is good but only if your luggage is sparse.



Here at my place I have heard people sleep in queue outside the counter a night before...But 2 days in queue its horrible...


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## whitestar_999 (Jun 6, 2014)

here(UP) people hire other people to stand in tatkal queue & change place when hired person reach counter after spending a day or night.now railway officials are installing cameras to take pictures of people in queue to stop this practice.


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## kaz (Jun 6, 2014)

whitestar_999 said:


> here(UP) people hire other people to stand in tatkal queue & change place when hired person reach counter after spending a day or night.now railway officials are installing cameras to take pictures of people in queue to stop this practice.



What's the problem? A poor will earn his bread and butter standing in the queue... Instead they should not allow any queue before a certain time in the morning...


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## arijitsinha (Jun 6, 2014)

ravi847 said:


> The website has a special version which shows up only when you try to open the site during the tatkal hours..
> People who wish to book tatkal ticket should use that e-wallet option and transfer some money in it so that your transaction is fast.
> The ticket is not booked until  the transaction is completed and Irctc has processed it.



eWallet is not available for tatkal booking.


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## Hrishi (Jun 6, 2014)

kaz said:


> What's the problem? A poor will earn his bread and butter standing in the queue... Instead they should not allow any queue before a certain time in the morning...


It's a big problem. A big one , indeed.
There are other ways too to earn bread and butter.


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## hsr (Jun 6, 2014)

lightningfassst said:


> [MENTION=22610]hsr[/MENTION]: If person is cripple and his/her home is far from railway station then _ebooking_ comes to use.



Did you even ready my post?


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## whitestar_999 (Jun 6, 2014)

[MENTION=121890]kaz[/MENTION],that's exploiting the poor.imagine a genuine hard working person,need to make a tatkal booking,standing in queue for hours while another person with more money simply hiring a poor person to stand in queue for him while he sits comfortably at home.does this sound fair to you?


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## TheSloth (Jun 6, 2014)

hsr said:


> Did you even ready my post?



yeah. you said there should be only one waiting queue.


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## hsr (Jun 6, 2014)

Read them again. To queue means to go one by one where the first gets served first and last gets served last, not people stacking behind each other.

I suggested to "club" the online booking services and the tatkal ticket counters in stations through a unified token system. Not to eliminate the e-booking service.


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## dashing.sujay (Jun 6, 2014)

Vignesh B said:


> Wow, mission accomplished. Bought a tatkal ticket by 10:05am. And probably I was the last one to get the ticket as there was a single ticket remaining when the payment stage had reached. IRCTC does seem to be improved by leaps and bounds.
> Read this thread in the morning, told my Dad to lets give a try. We don't have anything to lose.
> I don't usually use IRCTC to book tatkal except when its on some low traffic route and is off-season. The main reason being that the tickets gets over by 10:05 or maximum 10:10 in the routes that I need to travel and the queue is not so long in the counter inside the campus(except days like today - holidays+ counselling) and IRCTC doesn't budge until 11am.



You unlocked a new achievement 



> Today, morning only me and my Dad were discussing on how to get a ticket, as here the queue for tatkal seem to start 2 days before only! That is to book on 6th, you need to stand in the queue from 4th night only.



This is unbelievable. How long is the queue ? And what do you mean by 2-3 days of travel (in your next post)?


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## TheSloth (Jun 6, 2014)

hsr said:


> Read them again. To queue means to go one by one where the first gets served first and last gets served last, not people stacking behind each other.
> 
> I suggested to "club" the online booking services and the tatkal ticket counters in stations through a unified token system. Not to eliminate the e-booking service.



I didn't get you. So people who book online also have to go and get tokens?


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## hsr (Jun 6, 2014)

Leave it, not worth my time to explain it in detail.
Guy A prebooks ticket online at 10:00 > get token #30
Guy B prebooks ticket from station at 10:01 > gets token #31
For all tickets available, lower tokens are allocated tickets. For all cancelled tickets, lower tokens are allocated tickets.
(what if both at 10:00? Server concurrency will handle it)

p.s. once again, token means something that is given in place as assurance to something else. Not the tokens you punch out to get in queue at a bank.


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## kaz (Jun 6, 2014)

Hrishi said:


> It's a big problem. A big one , indeed.
> There are other ways too to earn bread and butter.





- - - Updated - - -



whitestar_999 said:


> [MENTION=121890]kaz[/MENTION],that's exploiting the poor.imagine a genuine hard working person,need to make a tatkal booking,standing in queue for hours while another person with more money simply hiring a poor person to stand in queue for him while he sits comfortably at home.does this sound fair to you?



Yeah right


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## Vignesh B (Jun 6, 2014)

dashing.sujay said:


> This is unbelievable. How long is the queue ? And what do you mean by 2-3 days of travel (in your next post)?


Usually this happens only during this season and during the winter term break.
Here, in the counter only 1 staff is present, and usually 90% of queue consists of students going back home. Poor them, they lie on the road outside as the counter closes at 8pm outside. Fortunately,the counter is present on a dead end of the campus. Till last year, during the holiday season, people used to write down their names on a piece of paper a day or two before the date of booking and hand it over to the security guard at the counter and come around 8am on the day of booking. But this year some of the staff and students made a furore saying that it is injustice to the people staying overnight at the counter. 
Buying from the counter present at the station is a no-no for most staffs and students as usually the queue is crowded by those illegal agents and other people standing for their respective bosses. Rarely will you find a legitimate traveler there. Also the place is utterly filthy.
Most of my travel by train include going to Kerala or Tamil Nadu, which takes around 46-48 hours. Add to that the 5 hours from Roorkee to Delhi.


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## Vyom (Jun 6, 2014)

Well I would like to quote a reply from Quora on IRCTC. This was written by Dhananjay Sathe, and I take no credit.



Spoiler



Dhananjay Sathe, Platform Developer & Operations Engineer @Directi  

Thanks for the  A2A Akhil

Contrary to popular belief IRCTC is perhaps a compounded problem.

*Sheer volumes and complexity *


They are the biggest E-Commerce Site in the country, about 2x the nett sales of Flipkart.com  the next name on that list AFAIK. The sort of demand they see in the  peak tatkal booking hours I suspect is orders of magnitude higher than  what flipkart can handle. For instance something as small (relatively)  as the recent Moto-E launch in India took down flipkart infrastructure (  Flipkart server crashes as Motorola Moto E goes on sale ).
Over  8 billion trips per year are undertaken in Indian Railways and bulk of  the booking happens through this system. Even on a record-breaking day,  Amazon only sold 13.5 million items worldwide, whereas Indian Railways  on the whole sells more than 21 million tickets on any average day. The  electronic system was put in place in the 80s and has since received  multiple incremental updates.


Of these, IRCTC books  around 250 million tickets per annum. It operates just the outermost web  layer. So, while webserver configurations, website architecture, and  other improvements will play a role, problems with booking a ticket are  spread across every layer up to the database. Moreover, the failures at  each stage of booking compound because a person who failed at the last  step will start afresh right from log in.
The problem is not  just the insufficiently responsive ticketing interface, but the huge  demand-supply ratio. Even if the whole process was totally seamless, we  would’ve only ensured that the first 20 million or so people got their  tickets every day, but 3 times as many people will still be left without  a reservation.

*Bottlenecks* *and solutions*

*Technical - *

*Seat selection*


Also  the railway system is far more complex then say a straight forward  purchase from amazon or a Google search.Tickets are commodities, while  seats and berths are not! This adds to the complexity. Let’s say Amazon  had an inventory of a million toothbrushes and 2 million people try to  buy the same item. I’m assuming they’ll just need to decrement the  counter and complete the transaction with buyers on a first-come  first-served basis, without worrying about which exact toothbrush will  go to whom (at the time of sale). In contrast, Indian Railways offers a  precisely labelled berth or seat to a ticket buyer.
In database  terms, a row-level lock is obtained on the berth, while thousands of  transactions compete for that! A better way would be to sell tickets  first and allot the berths later. If passengers can handle the  sophistication, they can even do a check-in later, but I think we’re  still quite some time away from that. The current logic for berth  preference can be retained, but applied as a separate step. In  reservation centres, there can be a separate berth allotment counter for  confirmed ticket holders.
This could use a stateful precompute  algorithm that generates the next candidate seat and provides it  dynamically. Then generates the next one as a background async process.
*Payments*


Another  huge bottleneck is in processing payments. It involves a series of menu  selections by users each causing pages to load followed by complex  handshakes between IRCTC, third party gateways, and the banks, security  checks and so on. Each step is prone to failures too. On the whole, 29%  of attempted payments failed.
Why not deduct money before ticket  booking begins for the day and return it if booking is unsuccessful?  Actually, IRCTC is instead considering a smarter move by which  passengers can keep prepaid cash with them. Apart from the obvious  performance improvement, the economic implications are huge. Imagine  crores of rupees lying with them without a need to pay interest?  Already, Indian Railways benefits from having an Advance Reservation  Period of 4 months. Together, effectively, passenger money is deposited  several months in advance. Remember Dell?
Possibly they could  have credit cards on file . Google Play, Itunes and many others already  do this, your next ticket could be a couple of clicks away, EVEN ON  MOBILE !
*Database*


 It becomes apparent a lot  of this is to do with their database architecture they perhaps could  implement a beefier database cluster with ample replication and  sharding. A lot of the work is read bound and this could most certainly  be improved.
If the database and application layers are  appropriately coupled it should be possible to implement some sort of  active caching, thus minimising rapid read impact without losing out on  data validity.
A lot of the sporadic load comes around the  tatkal tickets. This is a tiny fraction of the huge data open to  booking. A good architecture would be to to shard this critical hot data  into highly optimised database that would be tuned for concurrent locks  and writes and offer high availability for read throughputs. Also tune  your application to handle this separately optimised for  the job at  hand. Use beefy hardware for the same (plenty of ram,cpu network  bandwidth etc)

*Application Design and Architecture*



Toss out the monolithic web app and validation system
USING A CMS for this scale is  (IRCTC uses BroadVision’s CMS) an epic fail
Ditch  the Windows Stack , Move to Unix based environments, enable Gzip  compression , use stuff like Flashcache, HA-Proxy, Docker dynamic  scaling deployments depending on the time of the day. For instance add  5x the power during peak. Use a combination of Cloud on demand and self  hosted infra for best results.
Remove banner adverts, they as the railways should not need this , keep a clean minimal interface that does the job.
Move  the session handling into another layer and should be much more  graceful. The load of the 10 min timeout in a mainloop for instance is  perhaps one of the main reason for many screwups.
Break up critical parts into modules that are designed to scale horizontally provided the right hardware.
CDN for static content with multi host and redundant bandwidth across locations in the country,
Revamp  the core api to be data driven, off load client logic into the web  browser using something like Backbone or Angular  - this achieves 2  things, api can be rigorously tested and hardened. Ui can be offloaded  to another team that specializes in it , get better UI , easier to  extend and open up possibilities for a much better api driven mobile  client
*Hardware & Networking*



Update the database cluster for sure and most of the architecture that can no longer support these workloads.


Add  edge points in all major cities and aptly geo located centres to  minimise the response time (this would need a decoupled app imho for  best results)
Sorry EC2 is no magic word like a lot of people  suggest , EC2 would be a poor choice for IRCTC given where their traffic  and business is based off.
Perhap at certain time use a Cloud  hybrid deployment, you can use the elasticity of the cloud to meet peak  requirements that are sporadic. If the demand is consistently at similar  levels, add new physical hardware to your DC not to the cloud.
Add  an Peakflow/Arbor and handle DDOS mitigation abilities as i suspect the  railways site is victim to plenty given their importance. I would  choose a device over other techniques as the 2x latencies introduced to  mitigators/scrubbing centers (none in India) would just kill the  purpose.
Dedicated redundant Bandwidth from multiple ISP ,  possible multihost.They always seem to choke on this, besides DDoS  mitigation requires plenty of it. They are a sizable organization and  should be able to get that from govt and non govt players


*NON TECHNICAL*

Yes IRCTC is at the end of the day a public sector body, here are some of the usual suspects


Bureaucracy  in every step - delays getting the required people, hardware and  technical expertise to fix the issue once and for all
Lack of political will to fix the irctc system to create a bias for the chap at the counter .
Possible  corruption that benefits from a bad IRCTC experience such as the  network of travel operators and agents with political  connections/lobbies to ensure they stay in business.
Lack of funds
The  top down culture could have put some people averse to change and ones  lacking the technical inclination required so this may not feature on  their priority list or could be fooled by the software vendor into sub  standard software CMS running on a windows stack 

This awesome article by Sundar Lakshmanan was the inspiration to the answer.Five things IRCTC ticketing site must fix: A geek's wishlist for IRCTC/Indian Railways - NextBigWhat.  It got me thinking as to how this issue can be resolved and come up  with the numerous ideas. Feel free to suggest and add more , perhaps a  sort of answer wiki.



Link to the original reply: *www.quora.com/Indian-Railways/What...C-website-to-be-so-slow-and-unpleasant-to-use

And hence, any kind of reform IRCTC does is appreciated.


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## dashing.sujay (Jun 6, 2014)

^I have already read that and it largely doesn't applies, practically.


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## anirbandd (Jun 6, 2014)

Vyom said:


> Well I would like to quote a reply from Quora on IRCTC. This was written by Dhananjay Sathe, and I take no credit.
> 
> 
> 
> ...





dashing.sujay said:


> ^I have already read that and it largely doesn't applies, practically.



well, its a very deep insight


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## gagan_kumar (Jun 7, 2014)

dashing.sujay said:


> Well, how quick do you remember booking a tatkal ticket on IRCTC ? Been booking for years, I get to book every now and then a tatkal ticket, every week (coincidentally), so my experience said anything below 10:10 was very good; luck was on your side.
> 
> But yesterday, I booked one at 10:05. Saw that IRCTC had introduced a new site which was very very fast (same as TDF or any normal site), that too at the time of peak load (tatkal hours).
> 
> ...



well idk much about tatkal but it should open first for offline ticket booking then online like 1 hour difference should suffice ..........


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## anirbandd (Jun 7, 2014)

^ reason??


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## gopi_vbboy (Jun 7, 2014)

so ache din has come.

Thank u modi.


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## anirbandd (Jun 7, 2014)

modi??


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## whitestar_999 (Jun 7, 2014)

actually this might be true.cbi unearthed a group of booking agents who had managed to install their own booking software directly linked to one of the booking terminal inside mumbai railways office resulting in almost zero public access to tatkal tickets on that server during booking hours.it was suspected that there were other groups hijacking booking servers in such manner.of course none of this is possible without the involvement of railway officials.maybe because of new govt such things have stopped finally freeing much of the tatkal tickets which were earlier pocketed exclusively by booking agents in such groups.


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## anirbandd (Jun 7, 2014)

in such short time?? c'mon!!


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## whitestar_999 (Jun 7, 2014)

it is just software hack.all it needs to stop working is a few clicks & keystrokes.it is completely possible.


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## dashing.sujay (Jun 7, 2014)

gta0gagan said:


> well idk much about tatkal but it should open first for offline ticket booking then online like 1 hour difference should suffice ..........



You should comment such things after thinking. Do you know for how long tatkal remains ? Most of the prominent routes are finished up under 10 mins.


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## gagan_kumar (Jun 8, 2014)

dashing.sujay said:


> You should comment such things after thinking. Do you know for how long tatkal remains ? Most of the prominent routes are finished up under 10 mins.



well thinking about people waiting in queues like before 5-6 hours of opening tatkal at reservation center i made that comment while on the other hand people simply register a ticket on click of a button..........


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## whitestar_999 (Jun 8, 2014)

people do not simply get a tatkal ticket online(at least not earlier).there were many jokes about it(surviving in a battlefield is easier kind).even now all you get is 10 minutes & if you face even a slight connection issue your chance is gone.people on counter at least have a guarantee that they will get a tatkal ticket when their number comes.


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## dashing.sujay (Jun 9, 2014)

One more thing-

Even though the server load has been greatly reduced, but the new site is adding cheery on the cake. Sad part is that the new version of site isn't available to all users, may be on a random basis.

Like it isn't available for my id, so I have to use someone else's id to login. The old version site becomes a bit slow during tatkal hours, much faster than before though, but no where near to the new version site.

I'm talking about this, when talking about new version of site; you should get this after logging in-



Spoiler



*imgur.com/4Z2JqBb.jpg


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## Vignesh B (Jun 9, 2014)

Even my ID hasn't got the new login, so am using my Mom's ID. One thing peculiar, is that the initial login takes a lot of time as compared to the old login. After that its much faster.
But the payment options have been greatly reduced(read removal of options like Axis bank, IOB and a lot others due to absence of payment gateways etc). They support only a couple of debit cards, credit cards. Net baking is like before only.


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## Vyom (Jun 9, 2014)

I never saw that page dashing.sujay, but I did see this after I select the "submit" button:



Spoiler



*i.minus.com/iBRGMaTs1Sm7j.JPG



If you get something other than this after press "Proceed for booking" that would be news!


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## Vignesh B (Jun 9, 2014)

^^ The new login is a continuation of the screenshot that you've given. In the old login, after you click book now, it goes back to the standard IRCTC passenger details page. In the new interface its a continuation of the above screenshot.
Also I get this train info page(like the one in the screenshot) at random times, and at other times I get the old screen with a waiting circle image.

Old interface


Spoiler



*i60.tinypic.com/103sdfr.jpg



New interface


Spoiler



*i57.tinypic.com/2d1vbds.png


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## gopi_vbboy (Jun 10, 2014)

anirbandd said:


> modi??



Well dude Modi does have strong control over bureaucracy and good leadership.
He does know how to market as well as deliver.Let me inform you why its modi effect -

1.
Read this article:


Spoiler






> It was the summer of 1990. As Indian Railway (Traffic) Service probationers, my friend and I travelled by train from Lucknow to Delhi. Two MPs were also travelling in the same bogie. That was fine, but the behaviour of some 12 people who were travelling with them without reservation was terrifying. They forced us to vacate our reserved berths and sit on the luggage, and passed obscene and abusive comments. We cowered in fright and squirmed with rage. It was a harrowing night in the company of an unruly battalion; we were on edge, on the thin line between honour and dishonour. All other passengers seemed to have vanished, along with the Travelling Ticket Examiner.
> 
> We reached Delhi the next morning without being physically harmed by the goons, though we were emotionally wrecked. My friend was so traumatised she decided to skip the next phase of training in Ahmedabad and stayed back in Delhi. I decided to carry on since another batchmate was joining me. (She is Utpalparna Hazarika, now Executive Director, Railway Board.) We boarded an overnight train to Gujarat’s capital, this time without reservations as there wasn’t enough time to arrange for them. We had been wait-listed.
> 
> ...






She is GM of CRIS (Managing IRCTC)

Source



2. This guy is an IAS secretary and his tweet on modi meeting



Spoiler



*blogs.economictimes.indiatimes.com/ParthShastra/mediaresource/0f4933ce-da1d-436f-8b20-e20e36934fa3/tweetpic1.jpg



Source


I you don't get it ...god bless you 

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whitestar_999 said:


> actually this might be true.cbi unearthed a group of booking agents who had managed to install their own booking software directly linked to one of the booking terminal inside mumbai railways office resulting in almost zero public access to tatkal tickets on that server during booking hours.it was suspected that there were other groups hijacking booking servers in such manner.of course none of this is possible without the involvement of railway officials.maybe because of new govt such things have stopped finally freeing much of the tatkal tickets which were earlier pocketed exclusively by booking agents in such groups.



Ya agree..this may happen and govt needs to investigate such things.


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## anirbandd (Jun 10, 2014)

Now i am not going to believe that in India even God can change something in the govt machinery in a year. 

And Modi has been on the chair for what, 2 weeks?? 

Nope. This was not due to modi. 
This change was in the pipeline long before he came into power. And it came out as he took his chair. 

Take as you want, but this was not Modi's doing.


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## dashing.sujay (Jun 10, 2014)

Vignesh B said:


> Even my ID hasn't got the new login, so am using my Mom's ID. One thing peculiar, is that the initial login takes a lot of time as compared to the old login. After that its much faster.
> But the payment options have been greatly reduced(read removal of options like Axis bank, IOB and a lot others due to absence of payment gateways etc). They support only a couple of debit cards, credit cards. Net baking is like before only.



I didn't face any login delays, it was as quick as a login could be.



Vyom said:


> I never saw that page dashing.sujay, but I did see this after I select the "submit" button:
> 
> 
> 
> ...



That site was introduced long ago (around some months). Even though it was fast as compared to the age old site of IRCTC, but still was a very marginal improvement.

See the second screenshot by Vignesh, that's the thing I'm talking about. There's no live session timer in the new_est_ site. And a bit aesthetic/UI changes here and there.


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## Vyom (Jun 10, 2014)

No timer in the new interface!  So this *is* news!
What do you suggest? Make a new ID to see if I get the new interface?

Oftopic:
Btw, to Vignesh, please use a good image hosting site like, imgur or minus.com, where image if opened in new tab opens just the image not the whole site. Thanks.


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## dashing.sujay (Jun 10, 2014)

You may try. I really don't know on what basis are they pushing new site to random IDs.

See this and compare it with your screenshot-



Spoiler



*imgur.com/Qk5Tr1w.jpg




One more thing- If you enter "*irctc.co.in", then it opens no frills login page (which as intended for tatkal), but if you add www, it opens up the normal login page which is relatively slower. This implication shows how careless engineers at CRIS can be.

Also, do match the URL of mine with yours. Your should be something like jp.irctc.xxxxx versus mine as above.


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## Vyom (Jun 10, 2014)

^ Yea. I get this jp.irctc something. So that means, for me only a part of the website where we actually find trains and book them is from the new one, VS, in your case complete site is new one. Well, I won't worry now much, since I *am* getting the new interface, doesn't matter if the wrapper is the old one!


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## dashing.sujay (Jun 10, 2014)

^But this damn new site is so blazing fast. You ought to try this one.


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## gopi_vbboy (Jun 10, 2014)

dashing.sujay said:


> ^But this damn new site is so blazing fast. You ought to try this one.



Ya ... great achievement is irctc opens ...lol ...


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## Vignesh B (Jun 10, 2014)

dashing.sujay said:


> I didn't face any login delays, it was as quick as a login could be.


At times , it is opening immediately as I tested now. But at other times, it takes upto 2-3 minutes to load.



Vyom said:


> Oftopic:
> Btw, to Vignesh, please use a good image hosting site like, imgur or minus.com, where image if opened in new tab opens just the image not the whole site. Thanks.


Sorry. 
Will do that from the next time.


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## kaz (Jun 10, 2014)

The best feature now is that if the payment gets stuck in middle and its unsuccessful then they display a page with all those booking details and I just have to choose the payment method and proceed...This new site is super cool


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## anirbandd (Jun 10, 2014)

^yes!

i hope it stays that way.


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## Vyom (Jun 22, 2014)

So today when I login to IRCTC in the "RUSH HOUR" the site took a while to load. But when it did load, I was encountered with following screen. Needless to say, I was elated.

*i.minus.com/iD4zAIaepRM7w.PNG


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## .jRay. (Jun 22, 2014)

Site isn't loading for me at all. after login the screen is blank.


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## kaz (Jun 23, 2014)

.jRay. said:


> Site isn't loading for me at all. after login the screen is blank.



Sometimes happens while using chrome, try firefox...

Yesterday I opened IRCTC on phone to get the ticket sms and there was no details available in booking history  I noticed that the site was irctc.co.in so I logged in to nget.irctc.co.in and I found all my booking details there...This can be frustrating for some person


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## .jRay. (Jun 23, 2014)

kaz said:


> Sometimes happens while using chrome, try firefox...
> 
> Yesterday I opened IRCTC on phone to get the ticket sms and there was no details available in booking history  I noticed that the site was irctc.co.in so I logged in to nget.irctc.co.in and I found all my booking details there...This can be frustrating for some person



I am using firefox.  anyway it worked after clearing cache/ cookies


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## dashing.sujay (Jun 23, 2014)

Vyom said:


> So today when I login to IRCTC in the "RUSH HOUR" the site took a while to load. But when it did load, I was encountered with following screen. Needless to say, I was elated.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Congrats buddy !



.jRay. said:


> Site isn't loading for me at all. after login the screen is blank.



Use nget.irctc.co.in .



kaz said:


> Yesterday I opened IRCTC on phone to get the ticket sms and there was no details available in booking history  I noticed that the site was irctc.co.in so I logged in to nget.irctc.co.in and I found all my booking details there...This can be frustrating for some person



Yeah, it can be confusing, but now they have mentioned it explicitly about this thing and they also have provided separate (old/new) links for booked history retrieval.


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## kaz (Jun 25, 2014)

5mins and regret in all class in all trains to New Delhi...kuch nahi ho sakta desh ka ab


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## Vyom (Jun 25, 2014)

Yes. IRCTC is improved. But still if you try to login at precise 10, all the luch will go against you.


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## kunalht (Jun 26, 2014)

hii i cancelled a ticket from irctc before 3 days but still didnt received refund. Does it takes long time to get refund ? Ticket was in waiting list and not Tatkal


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## krishnandu.sarkar (Jun 26, 2014)

kunalht said:


> hii i cancelled a ticket from irctc before 3 days but still didnt received refund. Does it takes long time to get refund ? Ticket was in waiting list and not Tatkal



Yes it takes around 7 working days. Don't worry you'll get your money back.


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## nomad47 (Jun 26, 2014)

I booked a ticket from irctc during tatkal hours from a mobile browser using 2G network. FTW!!!


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## .jRay. (Jun 26, 2014)

nomad47 said:


> I booked a ticket from irctc during tatkal hours from a mobile browser using 2G network. FTW!!!



Pics or didn't happen


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## nomad47 (Jun 26, 2014)

What pics shall I give you?? 
Am traveling in that ticket now


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## .jRay. (Jun 26, 2014)

You sir... Have accomplished the possimpible.


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## nomad47 (Jun 26, 2014)

Yes sir, I feel like "achievement unlocked"


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## kunalht (Jun 26, 2014)

krishnandu.sarkar said:


> Yes it takes around 7 working days. Don't worry you'll get your money back.



okay thanks!


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## krishnandu.sarkar (Jun 26, 2014)

kunalht said:


> okay thanks!



Yeah it may be 15 days instead of a week, but it's 100% sure that you'll get your money back


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## kunalht (Jun 26, 2014)

krishnandu.sarkar said:


> Yeah it may be 15 days instead of a week, but it's 100% sure that you'll get your money back



Got refund!
in 3 days !!!


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## anirbandd (Jun 26, 2014)

even i got refunded in 3 days


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## dashing.sujay (Jun 28, 2014)

As the new website is slowly being pushed to all IDs, it's showing it's toll. However, it's still much fast.


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## Vyom (Jun 28, 2014)

Yup. Trains to Bihar fills up in one minute straight. Never seen tatkal tickets booked so fast.


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## dashing.sujay (Jun 29, 2014)

Vyom said:


> Yup. Trains to Bihar fills up in one minute straight. Never seen tatkal tickets booked so fast.



Tickets always used to fill that fast, difference only being that now a days, you had a _probable_ chance to get one.

There are some trains in which online booking is just not possible. The moment you check it's availability, it's all gone. Worse time is yet to come (diwali).


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## nomad47 (Jun 29, 2014)

You can't get a Rajdhani tatkal ticket using IRCTC.


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## nomad47 (Jun 29, 2014)

Forget tatkal, come durgapuja when tickets will open for booking (60 days) some trains in and out of Kolkata will be booked in 20 minutes.


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## dashing.sujay (Jun 30, 2014)

nomad47 said:


> You can't get a Rajdhani tatkal ticket using IRCTC.



Nothing like that. I did it twice in last week.


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## Vyom (Jul 1, 2014)

Real test of IRCTC is to book a Tatkal ticket from/to Bihar in July. And that's what I tried to do today.

I prepared for 3 days for this. I put down all the details in notepad including Credit card number so that it save me to "type" it when I had to book it. I knew I would get only one chance to book a ticket for someone who needed to come from Bihar to Delhi. It was 9:30 when I checked everything. Entry of the passenger in "Master Passenger List"? Checked. Created a "Favourite Journey List"? Checked. Mock booking to let my muscle learn the movements while booking a ticket? Checked.

It was 10 finally. And I clicked the book button. It was 250 seats available when I proceeded for payment gateway. By the time I got back from the payment gateway, only 90 seconds was passed. And I was about to do my victory dance. But in a shocking twist I saw that the ticket I just booked was not confirmed. And it got a WL/69. I was like, "What The Effing F...?" 

Well, about 318 was already booked in under 90 seconds, while I hesitated to put my banking password while booking. I underestimated the time, and took a little bit more time than I should have taken. I lost the race. 

Well, since than the waiting list have come down to 26. But if it doesn't confirm by 9:30 am tomorrow, I will try yet again. This time I will be more prepared. :rage:


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## kaz (Jul 1, 2014)

nomad47 said:


> You can't get a Rajdhani tatkal ticket using IRCTC.



tatkal is not possible/available in 1st AC ....


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## Vyom (Jul 2, 2014)

Today was a day I finally did my victory dance. It was about to be 9:30 again. My yesterday's booking was still showing number 18 in the waiting list. I didn't have any choice. I wanted a confirmed ticket. So I decided to try to book a tatkal ticket from Bihar to Delhi, Yet again.

Cracked my knuckles, did mock bookings, and synchronized PC watch with that of IRCTC. On the count when the clocked strike 9:59:59 I clicked the book button. Nervously clicked the buttons, entered Captchas, and filled card details with hands which was shaking with equal amount rage and equal amount excitement. As soon as the banking password was filled, my eyes was fixated on the 19" monitor in hopes of getting a confirmed ticket. And then it happened. It was confirmed. I elated with joy. Did high fives with colleagues who had been a silent spectator and was enjoying the show while I was perspiring in the cold. It felt like I had unlocked an achievement. And guess what I think I just did. 

Booked a Tatkal ticket in just 65 seconds! That must be a record. I think I can still break it though.


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## sling-shot (Jul 3, 2014)

Vyom said:


> Today was a day I finally did my victory dance. It was about to be 9:30 again. My yesterday's booking was still showing number 18 in the waiting list. I didn't have any choice. I wanted a confirmed ticket. So I decided to try to book a tatkal ticket from Bihar to Delhi, Yet again.
> 
> Cracked my knuckles, did mock bookings, and synchronized PC watch with that of IRCTC. On the count when the clocked strike 9:59:59 I clicked the book button. Nervously clicked the buttons, entered Captchas, and filled card details with hands which was shaking with equal amount rage and equal amount excitement. As soon as the banking password was filled, my eyes was fixated on the 19" monitor in hopes of getting a confirmed ticket. And then it happened. It was confirmed. I elated with joy. Did high fives with colleagues who had been a silent spectator and was enjoying the show while I was perspiring in the cold. It felt like I had unlocked an achievement. And guess what I think I just did.
> 
> Booked a Tatkal ticket in just 65 seconds! That must be a record. I think I can still break it though.


Happy for you and particularly for the execution


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## kARTechnology (Jul 3, 2014)

i booked a ticket today(general) and now im *unable to cancel it*, as it is not appearing in any of the old or new website 
though typing the PNR in the new page shows no records

- - - Updated - - -

63 3A tickets over in 4 minutes, before i book a ticket,
WORST WEBSITE STILL, DOUBLE CLICK AND EVERYTHING GONE, AND 3 CAPTCHAS, GETS STUCK NEAR PAYMENT GATEWAY FOR A MINUTE AND ALL TICKETS GONE
AGAIN 10 2A TICKETS LEFT FROM BEGINING! TRIED 2A AND THEY WERE OVER TOO, GETTING ANGRY


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## Vyom (Jul 3, 2014)

^^ Dude... I was not able to get "One" confirm ticket under Tatkal, even when I booked in just 90 seconds (a minute and a half) and you are cribbing that you couldn't book a ticket in 4 min?
Make yourself fast. Practice mock booking.


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## anirbandd (Jul 3, 2014)

The website catches the booking info incase the session expires before payment is made. 

thats really good. my session expired, and then again after i logged in, it gave a popup saying if i wanted to continue with the previous booking info. 

pretty cool!


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## kARTechnology (Jul 3, 2014)

anirbandd said:


> The website catches the booking info incase the session expires before payment is made.
> 
> thats really good. my session expired, and then again after i logged in, it gave a popup saying if i wanted to continue with the previous booking info.
> 
> pretty cool!



cool eh? i clicked 2 times and poof! gone, threw me outside

- - - Updated - - -



Vyom said:


> ^^ Dude... I was not able to get "One" confirm ticket under Tatkal, even when I booked in just 90 seconds (a minute and a half) and you are cribbing that you couldn't book a ticket in 4 min?
> Make yourself fast. Practice mock booking.



we are not experts like you sir, just small boy who uses general quota than tatkal
until now i think i have booked only 2-4 tatkal tickets successfully!


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## ramakanta (Jul 4, 2014)

Welcome to Next Generation e-Ticketing website !!!You can access eticketing site directly at  *nget.irctc.co.in 

I have getting a message from  DM-IRCTCi

you have been migrated to new system  *nget.irctc.co.in

- - - Updated - - -

what is TPIN ????


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## Hrishi (Jul 7, 2014)

Guys , how is the performance and accessibility of the website these days for IRCTC in morning within tatkal/emergency hours ?
I need to book a ticket tomorrow , was wondering if there's any possibility that I might end up getting timeout errors throughout the duration ?

I will be travelling in the western railway route.
New Delhi - > Mumbai Route.


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## Vyom (Jul 7, 2014)

Hrishi said:


> Guys , how is the performance and accessibility of the website these days for IRCTC in morning within tatkal/emergency hours ?
> I need to book a ticket tomorrow , was wondering if there's any possibility that I might end up getting timeout errors throughout the duration ?
> 
> I will be travelling in the western railway route.
> New Delhi - > Mumbai Route.



Performance of IRCTC is top notch. And that's why tickets booked in seconds. That's why I advise to do mock bookings. That is to practice booking with all the details filled in, just not complete the transaction. Read my previous experience shared no a page before.


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## Hrishi (Jul 7, 2014)

Vyom said:


> Performance of IRCTC is top notch. And that's why tickets booked in seconds. That's why I advise to do mock bookings. That is to practice booking with all the details filled in, just not complete the transaction. Read my previous experience shared no a page before.


Well yes , today I tired mock booking at around 11AM . It went smooth.
Seems , I might stand a chance tomorrow.


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## dashing.sujay (Jul 7, 2014)

You won't face any timeouts, probably, but do check a day before that how fast the train gets booked in which you intend to. I'm saying this as there are some trains in which booking is just not possible.


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## kaz (Jul 7, 2014)

Website is working fine, but the problem is that in some routes its impossible to get a ticket...2-3 days back my friend booked a tatkal ticket from Ranchi to Yeshwantpur @10:03am using IRCTC and he got WL 40 

Another friend was booking a tatkal ticket to New Delhi few days ago and he was at 1st position at the counter, but it showed him *regret* 


I don't know where are the tickets going so fast


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## Hrishi (Jul 8, 2014)

kaz said:


> Website is working fine, but the problem is that in some routes its impossible to get a ticket...2-3 days back my friend booked a tatkal ticket from Ranchi to Yeshwantpur @10:03am using IRCTC and he got WL 40
> 
> Another friend was booking a tatkal ticket to New Delhi few days ago and he was at 1st position at the counter, but it showed him *regret*
> 
> ...


rofl ...thats hilarious but bad at same time.
i am going in the western railways so it will be less hassle. 
this.morning.have to book a ticket and do the impossible.....


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## kaz (Jul 8, 2014)

Yeah!!! It very much depends on the route...Yesterday I booked a tatkal ticket from Delhi to Patna for a friend and guess what the ticket was booked for yesterday only, 3hours before the train departure


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## Hrishi (Jul 8, 2014)

Managed the impossible today. Got a ticket for myself in Garib Rath 3A. ( highest preferred train and class ) 
All the tickets were exhausted within 4 minutes. I finished in first 40 seconds only. 
As soon as the clock hit 9:59 , I started refreshing , and as soon as the book option appeared , I fired in the hole. 
All information already written and on Clipboard.

Had all my passwords checked , and had 4 different cards kept handy. Fail-Proof plan.
But thanks to the new and improved IRCTC. I am impressed. This is exactly what I always wanted. Good job , Indian Railways.


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## pkkumarcool (Jul 8, 2014)

i logged in its not that good but its better than before for sure it took 2 mins to load anything in irctc


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## Vyom (Jul 8, 2014)

Hrishi said:


> Managed the impossible today. Got a ticket for myself in Garib Rath 3A. ( highest preferred train and class )
> All the tickets were exhausted within 4 minutes. I finished in first 40 seconds only.
> As soon as the clock hit 9:59 , I started refreshing , and as soon as the book option appeared , I fired in the hole.
> All information already written and on Clipboard.
> ...



Congrats man. But only 40 seconds? I highly doubt you could have broken my record. 
Check the book time on your ticket. And post the exact time.


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## kaz (Jul 8, 2014)

Hrishi said:


> Managed the impossible today. Got a ticket for myself in Garib Rath 3A. ( highest preferred train and class )
> All the tickets were exhausted within 4 minutes. I finished in first 40 seconds only.
> As soon as the clock hit 9:59 , I started refreshing , and as soon as the book option appeared , I fired in the hole.
> All information already written and on Clipboard.
> ...




Which ISP and Card you used?
I have seen using ICICI card for payment is much faster than SBI card's


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## gopi_vbboy (Jul 8, 2014)

Railway budget today...hope theres something good


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## Hrishi (Jul 8, 2014)

kaz said:


> Which ISP and Card you used?
> I have seen using ICICI card for payment is much faster than SBI card's


ICICI Bank Net Banking.+ 512kbps broadband.

- - - Updated - - -



Vyom said:


> Congrats man. But only 40 seconds? I highly doubt you could have broken my record.
> Check the book time on your ticket. And post the exact time.



Yeah , I mean close to that. That was a metaphor. I think , It was booked at 10:01:04 AM . Close enough. 
I mean on IRCTC site , I didn't spend too much time. Tried to proceed as fast as possible.


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## kaz (Aug 25, 2014)

Booked a ticket in General Quota @10:04 am  for Oct 8th

I remember we bashed IRCTC for being so slow its now faster than Google


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## Neo (Aug 25, 2014)

So kota-patna express got a 650 waiting at 8:05 am. Yeah 5 mins. My mind =blown. So i had to book a ticket from Indore.


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## kaz (Aug 25, 2014)

Neo said:


> So kota-patna express got a 650 waiting at 8:05 am. Yeah 5 mins. My mind =blown. So i had to book a ticket from Indore.



LOL 650WL


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## anirbandd (Aug 26, 2014)

kaz said:


> LOL 650WL


Yeah. All Patna trains fill up like that fast. 

I saw the Pune Patna SF go from 100+ available to 450wl in 4clicks apart. About 5secs between the clicks.


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## kaz (Aug 26, 2014)

Like who buys tickets in that much waiting....


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## kaz (Oct 17, 2014)

What's wrong with the site today


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## Gollum (Oct 17, 2014)

I am not able to login
WHY the Faq is it not able to reset my password, Goddamn it


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