IRCTC logs record 20 lakh ticket bookings in a day as festive rush peaks
IRCTC recorded its highest-ever single-day booking of over 20 lakh tickets on September 7, 2026, as festive-season demand surged.
The festive season has pushed demand for train tickets to record levels, with the Indian Railways' online reservation system handling its heaviest-ever single day of bookings. IRCTC said it processed 20,06,353 tickets on September 7, 2026 — its highest one-day figure — driven by advance reservation period (ARP) bookings for the festive rush. The load stayed high the next day, with 19,50,699 tickets booked on September 8.
Around 89 per cent of all reserved tickets are now booked online, the railway PSU said, adding that it has been steadily upgrading its Next Generation e-Ticketing (NGeT) platform to cope with the pressure.
Capacity nearly doubled
IRCTC said the NGeT system's capacity has been raised to almost twice its earlier level through a combination of hardware and software changes. Older infrastructure has been replaced with new servers, while software optimisation and architectural improvements have boosted the system's ability to process booking requests.
A beta version of a redesigned user interface was rolled out on July 15, 2026. The new interface presents information more clearly and lets passengers view availability across Sleeper, AC 3 Tier and AC 2 Tier on a single screen, removing the need to switch between multiple pages while booking.
Morning surge drives peak load
The heaviest rush comes right after the reservation window opens. Between 8 am and 9 am, IRCTC completes 8.43 per cent to 14.14 per cent of the day's bookings, with more than 85 per cent of bookings done later in the day. The first 15 minutes, from 8:00 to 8:15 am, consistently see the highest booking volume and reflect peak concurrent demand, the PSU said.
On each ARP opening day, the NGeT system handles roughly 1.33 crore to 1.74 crore logins and 17 lakh to 20 lakh bookings.
Curbs on agents and bots
To keep the opening window fair, only Aadhaar-authenticated users can book tickets during the opening ARP period — a rule in force since October 12, 2025. Authorised ticketing agents, including Yatri Ticket Suvidha Kendras (YTSKs), Railway Ticketing Service Agents (RTSAs) and IRCTC agents, are barred from booking ARP tickets during the first 10 minutes of the window, from 8 am to 8:10 am.
IRCTC said its anti-bot system has cut malicious automated traffic by around 55 per cent to 65 per cent in recent months. A Content Delivery Network (CDN) now handles static content, reducing load on the main NGeT system, and the network security team is acting against fake websites and mobile applications posing as IRCTC.
Action against misuse
The PSU has also moved against accounts suspected of misusing the ticketing system. It has deactivated 3.04 crore user IDs and placed another 6.33 crore under revalidation. It has blocked 16,041 suspicious email domains and filed 592 complaints on the Cyber Crime Portal, covering about 4.21 lakh suspicious PNRs.
IRCTC said the recent booking numbers show the platform can process a very large number of simultaneous requests while maintaining secure and equitable access, and that it will keep upgrading the system to improve capacity, security and the overall booking experience.