Passengers faced a nightmare as they scrambled to book tickets on the IRCTC website, desperate to board a small fleet of trains that will roll out on Tuesday from New Delhi railway station and head for 15 destinations, including Howrah, across the country.
Booking for tickets was supposed to start at 4pm but an overload of hits boiled over into frustration and rage as an interminably spinning wheel on the website indicated it had virtually crashed.
“Website is nt working,” tweeted Abhinav Srivastav. “Almost aftr 50 days ppl opening site nd stil nt working. If it was nt able to workout then why #IndianRailways started, already its risky attempt to run train.”
“Unable to book any trains whatsoever. What nonsense is this,” tweeted Keziah Gundampati, tagging the IRCTC and the railway ministry to express his disgust.
Others tweeted pictures of the website and its rolling wheel that seemed to mock all efforts to grab that elusive train ticket.
“Need help, Ask Disha,” said a chatbot lurking at the bottom of the page. Click on it, and brace for another circling wheel of vexation.
But there were a few tweets of triumph as well.
Subham1098 posted a photograph of the page he had managed to access to book a ticket from Howrah to New Delhi, which showed that tickets were available for all dates from May 13 to 16. “Fares are quite high…Guys book your ticket now,” he tweeted cheekily, presumably aware of how difficult it was to gain access.
IRCTC blasé
The railways remained impervious to all the vitriol pouring out on #IRCTC, one of the top trending hashtags.
The website was fine, tweeted the IRCTC, blaming the delay on a minor housekeeping operation that required fresh data on the special AC trains to be uploaded.
“Data pertaining to special trains is being fed in the IRCTC website. Train ticket bookings will be available in a short while. Please wait. Inconvenience is regretted,” the railways tweeted.
“Bookings will be available shortly,” it added helpfully.
Officials said the IRCTC website had been working fine until it was taken down to upload fresh data. They added that the website would be up and running by 6pm. But that did not happen.
The railways have issued guidelines for the special trains to the 15 destinations, which will only have AC coaches (first, second and third) with the fare structure linked to the regular, time-tabled Rajdhani trains (excluding catering charges).
The train on the New Delhi-Howrah route and the corresponding return train will stop at Asansol, Dhanbad, Gaya, Mughalsarai, Allahabad and Kanpur Central.
The special train (02302) will leave New Delhi at 04.55pm and reach Howrah the next day at 09.55am. The special train (02301) will leave Howrah at 05.05pm and reach New Delhi the next day at 10.00am.
The guidelines said only e-tickets would be issued and that the bookings could be done only seven days in advance. Tickets can be cancelled only up to 24 hours before the date of journey and the cancellation charge will be 50 per cent of the fare.
High fares
Several passengers complained that it might have been easier to book tickets on the special trains if the railways had opted to run non-AC coaches that can accommodate many more people.
A large number of people have been locked down in cities for over 40 days and have been desperate to go home -– and the decision to run only AC trains at Rajdhani fares was as bizarre as it was insensitive.
Many slammed the railways for trying to profit from a crisis by running only AC coaches.
The protocols
The new protocols issued by the railways said no linen would be provided on the trains and advised the passengers to travel light but bring along their own sheets. The temperature inside AC coaches would be suitably regulated for this purpose, it said.
The IRCTC said it would make provisions for limited food – dry, ready-to-eat stuff -- and packaged drinking water against a payment and that no stalls would be open at the stops on the way. It encouraged the passengers to carry their own food and water.
It advised the travellers to reach the stations at least 90 minutes before departure and directed them to wear facemasks throughout the journey. All the passengers will be compulsorily screened and only the asymptomatic will be allowed to board.
All the passengers have been advised to download and use the Aarogya Setu application.
A home ministry order said only those passengers with confirmed e-tickets would be allowed to enter the stations.
The railways’ guidelines added that the booking of RAC and wait-listed tickets would not be permitted. Nor will current booking or tatkal or premium tatkal booking. There will be no sale of unreserved tickets, either.
