Bangladesh opens sale of advance train tickets for Eid-ul-Fitr holidays

Tickets will exclusively be sold online through the Bangladesh Railway website, the Rail Sheba app, and Shohoz.com

The sale of advance train tickets for travel during the Eid-ul-Fitr holiday season is underway.

This time, too, tickets can only be booked through online platforms, namely the Bangladesh Railway website, the Rail Sheba app and Shohoz.com.

Ticket sales for various routes in the western region kicked off at 8am on Sunday. Bookings for trips along the eastern routes will be available from 2pm.

Bangladesh Railway has tailored this year's journey schedule on the presumption that Eid will be celebrated on Apr 11.

Consequently, tickets for train journeys on Apr 3 went on sale on Sunday. The sales will continue until Mar 30 when tickets for Apr 9 will be available.

Depending on the sighting of the moon for Eid, additional tickets for Apr 10, 11, and 12 will also be sold.

Usually, tickets for Eid journeys sell out shortly after going on sale. This time, however, the demand on the first day appeared somewhat subdued, with some trains still having seats available as of 9am.

Certain trains in the western region have seen high demand, with tickets for the Ekota Express, Panchagarh Express, Rangpur Express, Nilsagar Express, and Lalmoni Express selling out quickly.

As of 9:10am, 29 Shovon category seats on the Rajshahi-bound Madhumati Express remained available, along with one in the Snigdha category. No first-class tickets have been sold for the train.

There were vacancies in the Silk City Express to Rajshahi, including one air-conditioned berth, and seven Shovon seats. For the Dhumketu Express and Padma Express trains, seats were still available in various classes.

The Banalata Express train's tickets sold out within the first five minutes.

For the Sundarban Express to Khulna, 20 AC seats, 41 Shovon chairs, and 24 Snigdha class tickets were available as of 9:24am.

However, an attempt to purchase through the 'Book Now' option revealed that all seats in Snigdha and Shovon classes were "booked", with some AC seats still available.

As of 9:30am, the Chitra Express had 43 Snigdha class, five AC Berth, and 100 Shovon seats marked as 'available'.

By 10:15am, there were still unsold tickets in the Chitra Express train across several classes.

Kamalapur Station Manager Masood Sarwar said that the rush is expected to start two to three days before Eid, factoring in public holidays, which may explain the lower ticket demand.

Advance tickets are traditionally sold 10 days before the travel date.

Accordingly, tickets for Apr 3 will be sold on Mar 24, tickets for Apr 4 on Mar 25, tickets for Apr 3 on Mar 26, tickets for Apr 6 on Mar 27, tickets for Apr 7 on Mar 28, tickets for Apr 8 on Mar 29, and tickets for Apr 9 on Mar 30.

Advance ticket sales for return trips will start on Apr 3, running until Apr 9, with 33,500 tickets on offer for intercity trains across various routes in the country.

In addition, eight pairs of special trains will operate on different routes nationwide for Eid.