IRCTC Sets New Record With Over 20 Lakh Train Tickets Booked in a Day

New Delhi, 13 September 2026: IRCTC recorded its highest-ever single-day booking of 20,06,353 reserved train tickets on September 7, as festive-season advance reservation activity pushed demand for online ticketing to a new peak.

The previous highest single-day booking recorded during the festive season was 18,40,203 tickets on August 19, 2025. The NGeT (Next Generation e-Ticketing) system handled another 19,50,699 bookings on September 8, according to IRCTC.

Around 89% of all reserved tickets are currently booked online, with the system handling heavy demand during the opening period of Advance Reservation Period (ARP) bookings.

IRCTC said 8.43% to 14.14% of the day’s bookings are completed during the first hour between 8 am and 9 am, while more than 85% are completed later in the day. The first 15 minutes, from 8 am to 8:15 am, consistently record the highest booking volume because of concentrated demand at the opening of the reservation window.

The latest booking figures come after a series of upgrades to the NGeT platform, including increased server capacity, software optimisation, a redesigned user interface and measures to control automated and fraudulent traffic.

Server Capacity Doubled After NGeT Refresh

Under the NGeT refresh, IRCTC has replaced older servers with new infrastructure, increasing the capacity of the overall ecosystem to approximately twice its earlier level. Software optimisation and architectural improvements have also been carried out to further increase system capacity.

A beta version of the new IRCTC user interface was introduced on July 15, 2026. The redesigned interface brings availability details for different classes, including Sleeper, AC 3-Tier and AC 2-Tier, onto a single screen, allowing passengers to compare available options without moving between multiple screens.

IRCTC has also implemented Anti-BOT and Content Delivery Network (CDN) measures. The Anti-BOT system has reduced malicious bot traffic by around 55% to 65% in recent months, while CDN deployment for static content has reduced the load on the NGeT system.

The IRCTC Network Security Team has also been taking action against websites and mobile applications impersonating the ticketing platform.

Restrictions on Agents During Opening Window

Authorised ticketing agents, including YTSKs, RTSAs and IRCTC agents, are prohibited from booking ARP tickets during the first 10 minutes of the booking window, from 8 am to 8:10 am.

Since October 12, 2025, only Aadhaar-authenticated users have been permitted to book tickets during the opening ARP window.

IRCTC said the NGeT system handled between 1.33 crore and 1.74 crore logins and processed 17 lakh to 20 lakh bookings on each ARP opening day.

Action Against Suspicious Accounts and PNRs

As part of measures against misuse of the online ticketing system, 3.04 crore user IDs have been deactivated and 6.33 crore IDs placed under revalidation.

IRCTC has also blocked 16,041 suspicious email domains and lodged 592 complaints on the Cyber Crime Portal, covering 4.21 lakh suspicious PNRs.

The latest booking figures were recorded during a period of exceptionally high concurrent demand, with IRCTC stating that the NGeT platform continued processing bookings without a reported failure or outage while handling the increased traffic.