IRCTC Reservation Portal - Addl Inputs

Dear Railways Circle Members:

Thanks for all your inputs on Issues, Root Causes and Solutions related to IRCTC Reservation Portal.

Kindly review and if you have anything additional, please post it with a Prefix (Issue, Root Cause, Solution) based on what it is.

We are in the process of compiling a whitepaper which will be shared with all the associated leaders so recommended actions can be appropriately considered and acted upon as fit.

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IRCTC Reservation Portal – Key Solutions

1. Selection of seats and berth should be allowed on IRCTC
2. Extra servers should be installed to optimize the portal performance during tatkal bookings in the mornings
3. The CAPTCHA should be removed and some other security feature should be put in to make the login process faster
4. Refunds should be automated and should be processed within 2 days
5. A feedback/complaint section should be put on the portal, where people can communicate their observations and suggestions
6. Senior citizens should be guaranteed lower births, pending availability
7. A message should automatically come up, when the screen has been idle for more than 5 minutes and the site is about to log out
8. Description of each class should pop up while booking
9. The status of RAC / WL should be updated every day on the IRCTC website
10. TDR issues should be addresses within 7 days
11. Payment gateways should be made more smooth and fool proof
12. Onward booking facility should be introduced
13. Booking through mobile should be allowed all times where allowed in portal
14. The mobile experience of the site should be better optimized


IRCTC Reservation Portal - Key Root Causes

1. The number of people that visit the portal is huge
2. Too many security features have been added to the portal
3. New features are being added to the site but they are not well planned
4. Some features on the portal are not explained properly
5. People are unaware of the TDR guidelines
6. IRCTC may not be well equipped to effectively running and scaling such a high traffic portal.
7. The site is not tested thoroughly before making the release live
8. Too many ads from Google provide for a poor user experience
9. Ministry and Railways do not have up to date industry people on staff and on board of IRCTC which is key to staying ahead of the curve.

IRCTC Reservation Portal – Key Issues

1. It takes a longer time to log in now
2. The CAPTCHA becomes pretty difficult to read
3. The portal has become a little confusing now
4. There is no way to book an onwards journey
5. The refund takes a long time to get processed
6. Selection of seats/berths is not allowed on the current website
7. No feedback or complaint section in the site
8. Senior citizens still cannot be guaranteed lower or middle birth while booking
9. Site logs out after every few minutes
10. IRCTC website becomes slow during the Tatkal period
11. The site also crashes many times
12. While booking, it is very difficult to figure out which classes are air conditioned
13. Once a person logged in with password, it asks password for each sub-section
14. The status of RAC / WL is not updated regularly
15. TDR takes months to clear and sometimes never even happens
16. Payment gateways are another bottleneck – payment gets rejected many times
17. No option of pre booking mean or even knowing if a pantry car exists in the train
18. Mobile booking not allowed from 8am to 12 noon
19. There is no option available for disabled person’s more