Advance train ticket sale for Eid begins

Bangladesh Railway (BR) yesterday began selling advance train tickets for Eid-ul-Azha at five different spots in Dhaka, with services being relatively smoother than previous occasions.

Although there were allegations of hassles involving purchasing tickets online, the complaints were not severe.

As per earlier announcement, BR yesterday sold tickets for August 7. Selling of tickets from counter started at 9am, and online at 6am.

Tickets for intercity trips to the country’s north-western districts was sold from Kamalapur while tickets for other destinations were sold from four other venues.

Prior to last Eid-ul-Fitr, railway, for the first time, sold 50 percent of the advance tickets online -- through app, SMS and railway website -- to ease the ticket purchasing process. Last year, 25 percent of tickets were sold online.

Last Eid, thousands tried to buy tickets online, clogging up the servers. But the situation seemed different yesterday.

A total of 8,209 tickets -- out of 10,670 allocated for online sale -- were sold till 1pm while 6,215 tickets were sold from counters at the five locations, BR documents show.

However, Md Masud, a madrasa student from Tejgaon, said he came to Kamalapur at 7am after failing to purchase his ticket online.

“I could log into the app but couldn’t buy ticket,” he said.

Sarib Hossain, an online marketer, said he managed to log in to the app around 9am but found tjat tickets to the train he wanted were sold out.

“Last time, I could not even long into the app. I found the online service this time around to be relatively better,” he said.

Visiting the station, Railways Minister Nurul Islam Sujan said there were some mismanagement last time but the situation has improved.

About complaints regarding the app, he said around 10,000 tickets were allocated for online sale and if five lakh people go online to purchase tickets, naturally 4.9 lakh would not get tickets. “We are trying out best within out limitations,” he added.

The minister said they will sell around 60,000 tickets -- including intercity, mail and standing -- daily during Eid rush.

Railway will operate eight special trains from August 8 till July 19, carrying 3,000 passengers. No tickets for these special trains will be sold through the app.

Replying to another question from journalists, he said huge pressure of passengers is the reason behind delay in train schedule. Besides, rail operation via single line is also a reason as it creates long waits to stations.

“We will not be able to avoid schedule collapse until we can construct double lines,” he added.