Travellers struggle to buy train tickets online before Eid

Travellers are struggling to buy advance train tickets online due to a huge load on the Bangladesh Railway’s ticketing website and app ahead of Eid-ul-Azha.

The number of customers hitting the website and the app on Wednesday far outnumbered the tickets available which led to the trouble, said Railways Minister Nurul Islam Sujan.

The authorities began selling tickets on Wednesday after the government announced lifting of the nationwide lockdown for nine days until Jul 23 morning.    

But many complained on social media that they could not access the website or the app. Some could log in by 10am, but the tickets were not available by then.

One of the customers, Rashed Reza, wrote in a comment on the ministry’s Facebook page he had tried from 8am to 12pm, but could secure a ticket.    

Another traveller, Sabbir Ali, told bdnews24.com he had contacted an official he knew. The official only reassured him that the tickets will be available sometime later.

“The counters are closed. Then where did the tickets go in two hours?” asked Sulaiman Chowdhury.

Minister Sujan said only 15,000 advance tickets are available online daily to ensure physical distancing during travel, while more than 30 million people tried to enter the website and the app for tickets. The trains will be allowed to run at half the capacity during the Eid.

The passengers prefer train journeys due to comfortable and traffic congestion-free travel at a cheaper fare than what the bus operators charge, the minister pointed out.

The train services for Eid will resume with 38 intercity and 19 mail and commuter trains on Thursday.

In normal times, the authorities operate services with 102 intercity, and 260 local, commuter and goods trains.