Advance train tickets for Eid sold out within 30 mins on 2nd day of sales

Tickets for western routes were sold out by 8:30am after ticket sales opened

Advance train tickets for the Eid-ul-Fitr holidays have sold out in the first 30 minutes since online sales opened on the second day.

Train tickets for trips on Apr 4 went live on the Bangladesh Railway website, the Rail Sheba app and Shohoz.com at 8am.

All tickets for western routes were sold out within half an hour.

Train tickets for the eastern routes will go live at 2pm.

This year, the Bangladesh Railway has set the train schedule under the assumption that Eid will fall on Apr 11. Advance ticket sales began on Sunday and will end on Mar 30.

According to the Bangladesh Railway authorities, tickets will also be sold for Apr 10-12, depending on the sighting of the moon.

On the first day of sales, train tickets were available past 10am on Sunday morning. However, they sold out much faster on Monday, with some trains fully booked within 15 minutes.

Speaking of Monday's sudden boost in sales, an official of the Kamalapur Railway Station told bdnews24.com, “The demand for train tickets was higher on Monday as a lot of holidaymakers will head home on Apr 4, which is a Thursday, and the next two days are weekends.”

All tickets for the Rangpur Express, Panchagarh Express, Ekota Express, Chilahati Express, Nilsagar Express, Lalmoni Express and Kurigram Express were sold out by 8:30am on Monday morning.

According to the railway authorities, tickets for trips on Apr 5 will be made available to the public on Mar 26. Tickets for April 6 will be sold on Mar 27, and Apr 7 on Mar 28.

Advance ticket sales for the return journey after Eid will begin on Apr 3.

Ticket seekers can purchase their tickets to return to Dhaka until Apr 9.

As many as 33,500 inter-city train tickets will be sold ahead of Eid-ul-Fitr this year.

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