IRCTC denied that its e-ticketing portal was down on November 10 2026. It said heavy concurrent logins during peak booking periods caused temporary login delays for some users. The portal stayed online throughout the day and ticketing is back to normal.

Ticket demand spikes in festive seasons such as Diwali and Chhath Puja. From June 2025 to June 2026, 65.08 crore reserved tickets were booked through PRS; 57.90 crore of those were bought online. Heavy traffic at the opening of ARP and Tatkal booking often disrupts service.

IRCTC is upgrading its Next Generation e-Ticketing (NGET) system to boost capacity and passenger experience. It also implements an active-active disaster recovery system to avert outages.

A beta version of the new website, launched July 15 2026, incorporates four major changes tied to a rebuilt Passenger Reservation Engine. The full portal should be operational in a few weeks.

Some users logged login issues and problems with ticket cancellations. One user reported an hour-long booking wait and double deduction of payments. Students from Malaviya National Institute of Technology (MNIT) suggested the new website. The existing IRCTC site averages about 14.5 lakh tickets per day.