All is not well with Tatkal Train Ticket Booking; 7 in 10 who had difficulty in booking Tatkal tickets online in the last 12 months say all tickets became unavailable within one minute of booking opening and they got waitlisted

June 2, 2025, New Delhi: For those waitlisted for a railway journey or wanting to travel urgently on a fully booked train, Tatkal tickets can be a good opportunity to get a confirmed ticket. When introduced by Indian Railways it was expected to be a transparent online system that would eliminate touts and free up access to tickets for everyone. However, for some time, passenger complaints have been mounting on how hard it is to secure a Tatkal ticket online and one must go through agents to secure a ticket. This raises questions amongst the commoners whether there is a system working behind the scenes that has an advantage over them. Following are a few of the many complaints filed on social media. “The worst tatkal ticket booking system of @IRCTCofficial. The window opens at 11.am and after filling all the details and made the payment within 1 minute after that also my ticket was not booked because the server of IRCTC started buffering.” “What is wrong with IRCTC tatkal booking? Payment gets deducted but no seat. Website/ app keeps crashing. Citizens are deprived of min basic services like tatkal…” “This tatkal booking system is a complete mess! For the last 10 days we haven’t been able to book even one ticket. Everything gets booked in a sec. How is common man supposed to travel? Are only bots and agents allowed to use IRCTC now? #TatkalScam# IRCTCFail…”

Is tatkal booking really a scam or a mismanaged system? Through screen shots on social media harassed train travellers have shared their miserable experience of trying to book a ticket through tatkal window which is supposed to open at 10 am but unexpected glitches appear. By the time it starts working, in just a few minutes all the tickets would have been sold. As a passenger has stated “Tatkal booking on IRCTC has become a joke”. It seems, IRCTC is favouring agents, who for a price are able to book tatkal tickets more smoothly. In fact, a season traveller has written that as against over 90% probability of getting a tatkal ticket in 2014, currently it is only 1-5% depending on whether it is done online or through the railways counter.

It must be noted that after hundreds of such complaints with regular ticket booking in 2015 on LocalCircles, the platform had raised a similar issue for regular quota train ticketing to Ministry of Railways. The Ministry did a detailed investigation and root cause analysis via CRIS railway system and it was found that an agent network working with certain Railway staff had created a system where bulk bookings were created in fake names upon train reservation opening and the names were changed later. This loophole was then plugged by Railways in 2015-16 making sure that the common traveller was not disadvantaged upon.

The fact is, the Indian Railways has been experiencing a substantial rise in passenger revenue, alongside growth from freight transport. The national rail carrier earned INR7.02 lakh crore from freight services between 2019 and 2024. During the same period, passenger revenue amounted to INR2.41 lakh crore. A major contributor to this is the premium Tatkal and Flexi fares, which have greatly benefitted the railways. Railways earned approximately 5% of its total revenue from flexi fare, tatkal and premium tatkal tickets from 2018-19 to 2022-23, the parliament was informed last year. Over the five-year period, the Railways generated INR13,737 from Tatkal and Premium Tatkal ticket categories. Implemented in sleeper and AC classes to target holiday travelers, the Premium Tatkal quota now requires passengers to pay three times the usual fare to secure a berth in some popular trains. These high demand trains also feature flexi fares where the ticket price increases with the demand.

In this peak travel season of summer holidays, as witnessed every year, there is a rush for confirmed railway seats or berths. With many people having booked rail tickets in the last few months or doing currently, LocalCircles has conducted a national survey to find out about their experiences of booking tatkal tickets. The survey received over 55,000 responses from train travellers located in over 396 districts of the country. 63% respondents were men while 37% respondents were women. 41% respondents were from tier 1, 29% from tier 2 and 30% respondents were from tier 3 and 4, 5 & rural districts.

4 in 10 train travellers surveyed who tried booking a Tatkal ticket in the last 12 months mostly failed to do so

The survey first asked train travelers, “When you attempted to book a railway ticket online under Tatkal Quota in the last 12 months, how often were you successful?” Out of 18,851 who responded to the question 10% stated “always or 100% of the times”; 15% of respondents stated “75-100% of the times”; 7% of respondents stated “50-75% of the times”; 10% of respondents stated “25-50% of the times”; 29% of respondents stated “0-25% of the times” while 29% of respondents stated “never”. To sum up, 4 in 10 train travelers surveyed who tried booking a Tatkal ticket in the last 12 months mostly failed to do so.

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7 in 10 train travellers surveyed who had difficulty booking a Tatkal railway ticket online in the last 12 months said within the first minute after booking opened all tickets got booked and they got waitlisted

Looking at the very many complaints about tatkal rail booking, the survey asked, “What all issues have you faced when attempting to book a railway ticket online under Tatkal Quota in the last 12 months?” Some among 18,611 rail travellers who responded to the question indicated more than one issue. 73% of respondents stated that “within the first minute after booking opened, all tickets got booked and we got waitlisted”; 73% of respondents stated that “the system displayed seats available when the booking opened but by the time we tried to pay, the seats became not available”; 18% of respondents state that they “faced other issues than the ones listed above”; 14% of respondents stated that they “did not face any issues” and 4% of respondents did not give a clear answer. To sum up, 7 in 10 train travellers surveyed who had difficulty booking a Tatkal railway ticket online in the last 12 months said within the first minute after booking opened all tickets got booked and they got waitlisted.

Only 4 in 10 train travellers surveyed believe that if they need a Tatkal railway ticket, the best way to get it is through the regular online booking process; Over 3 in 10 believe the best option is to go through a travel agent

In view of the difficulties many experience in getting tatkal rail tickets, the survey asked, “If you have to get a Tatkal Quota railway ticket, what do you believe is the best option?” Out of 18,245 who responded to the question 32% stated that they “use a travel/ticket agent to book it”; 8% of respondents stated that they “attempt booking through multiple accounts on multiple devices”; 40% of respondents stated that they “just follow the regular online booking process and get them”; 6% of respondents stated that they “visit the station/reservation office and get it from there”; 7% of respondents stated that they “try to go through a MP/MLA DRM, railway employee and get it”; and 7% of respondents did not give a clear answer. To sum up, only 4 in 10 train travellers surveyed believe that if they need a Tatkal railway ticket, the best way to get it is through the regular online booking process; Over 3 in 10 believe the best option is to go through a travel agent.

In summary, getting a Tatkal rail ticket is not so easy as 4 in 10 train travellers surveyed who tried booking a Tatkal ticket in the last 12 months mostly failed to do so. The data shows that 7 in 10 train travellers surveyed who had difficulty booking a Tatkal railway ticket online in the last 12 months said within the first minute after booking opened all tickets got booked and they got waitlisted. The result is only 4 in 10 train travellers surveyed believe that if they need a Tatkal railway ticket, the best way to get it is through the regular online booking process. However, over 3 in 10 believe the best option is to go through a travel agent. This is an indicator that even in this digital age, because of either the system deficiencies or unknown forces at the ticketing backend that travel agents have access to, people believe that they must go through a travel agent to secure a Tatkal booking.

LocalCircles will escalate these concerns of the common train travellers to Ministry of Railways for their intervention and action.