IRCTC Ticket Booking: Many users while booking their railway tickets on the IRCTC website and the IRCTC Rail Connect app started reporting an issue wherein the ticket booking amount was getting deducted but tickets were not getting booked.
At 2:18 PM on July 25, IRCTC provided an update and said,
"Booking issue has been resolved now. https://irctc.co.in/nget/train-search… and Rail connect app is working now. Inconvenience caused is deeply regretted."
Here's What Happened With IRCTC Today
The issue seemed to have started in the early morning hours of July 25 when a few users reported the IRCTC payment gateway being either down or not working.
After 8 AM, scores of users started reporting the issue where the money was getting deducted but tickets were not getting booked.
Many of these irate users took to Twitter to complain about the system failure. Some of them tried to book the tickets more than twice but ended up getting the same failure message.
Here are some tweets depicting the IRCTC payment issue.
IRCTC Response to Ticket Booking Issue
At around 8:07 AM, IRCTC confirmed a technical issue that is affecting the payments being made through either the website or their app. IRCTC also requested the passengers to use 'Ask Disha' option to book tickets.
IRCTC also stated that the payment issue does not affect payments made through e-wallets and requested that passengers use e-wallets for booking tickets.
It also tweeted about using the user id and password option for booking.
The Rail Madad Twitter handle which handles support queries of rail users has also been replying to many of these users regarding the payments issue. Many of these rail users have also raised concerns regarding the refund of these failed transactions.
Here's the reply that Rail Madad is using on all such concerns and queries.
How To Book Tickets via 'Ask Disha' Chatbot?
The IRCTC officials have asked rail users to continue booking their travel tickets through the Ask Disha option.
Ask Disha is an AI-based chatbot on the IRCTC website and app that allows users to book tickets, check booking status and address queries regarding trains.
The updated version called 'Ask Disha 2.0' now allows users to communicate with the system via voice, chat, and text messages. Rail passengers can check the PNR status as well using the Ask Disha chatbot.
Here are the steps to book tickets via the Ask Disha chatbot:
Login on to the IRCTC website or IRCTC Rail Connect app.
On the IRCTC website check the bottom left corner of the screen where you will see “Ask DISHA 2.0”. App Users can see the same option on the screen when you log in.
Click on the 'Book Ticket' option.
Select source and destination station of your travel journey.
Select Journey Date and Journey Quota.
Click 'Book Ticket'.
Select the train and seating options as per your requirement.
Then click on book ticket and make the payment.
IRCTC Ticket Booking Service Not Available?
The ticket booking service of the IRCTC website and app seems to be down and not working. Many rail users who tried to book tickets via e-wallet or Ask Disha options faced an issue where the option of selecting the 'seating option' & the 'Book Ticket' option after selecting the train was not working.
IRCTC did confirm about this issue as well and stated that due to some technical reasons the ticketing service is not available. Here's what they said,
"Due to technical reasons the ticketing service is not available. Our technical team is resolving th:e issue. We will notify as soon as the technical issue is fixed."
At 10:42 AM, IRCTC mentioned that the technical team of CRIS is still resolving the issue and ask the users to book tickets through other B2C players like Amazon, Makemytrip etc.
But users who followed these steps are encountering the same problem with their booking amount getting deducted but booking not getting confirmed.
Here are some responses on Twitter:
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