The new version of IRCTC, Indian Railways’ online ticket booking website, has been launched. The main purpose of this upgrade is to make the experience easier and faster for millions of passengers who book tickets every day. To understand this major change, read the complete news in this special Q&A report:
Question 1: What update has come regarding this new IRCTC website?
Answer: The beta version of the IRCTC website went live on July 15, 2026 at 9 PM. Last month, during a visit to Malaviya National Institute of Technology in Jaipur, Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw announced during interactions with students that the new IRCTC website would be launched by July 15.
Question 2: What major improvements have been made in the new beta website for common passengers?
Answer: The Railways has made four major technical improvements primarily for the convenience of passengers:
- Smart Captcha: Now annoying captchas will not appear during login or booking. Also, there are no unnecessary pop-ups, flashing graphics and distracting elements.
- Seat Availability: Now users will not have to search repeatedly for different classes like Sleeper, Third AC, Second AC. Seat availability in all categories will be displayed together on the screen.
- Fast Checkout: IRCTC has introduced a ‘Faster Checkout’ feature for booking. The number of steps passengers had to go through while booking tickets has been reduced. With fewer steps, the time taken for the entire booking process will decrease.
- Easy Repeat Booking: The ‘Easier Repeat Booking’ facility has been provided for frequent travelers. In this, passengers’ details will be saved in advance. Next time when booking a ticket, you won’t have to fill in name, age or other information again.
Question 3: How will the beta website be accessed and where will its link be available?
Answer: Passengers can experience the new portal by visiting https://www.irctc.co.in/eticket/. Apart from this, people who are visiting IRCTC’s old or current homepage website have also been provided with a direct link to go to the new beta website on the main page itself.
Question 4: What is the real objective of the Railways behind releasing the beta version?
Answer: The main purpose of launching the beta version is to get feedback and suggestions from common passengers. Rail passengers will be able to use the new website and give their opinion on its features. Based on this feedback, necessary improvements will be made to the website in the coming time, so that customer satisfaction can be increased.
Question 5: How much load is there on the IRCTC website?
Answer: The IRCTC website launched in the year 2002 is one of the country’s busiest online ticketing platforms. Earlier the traffic on it was less, but currently an average of 14.5 lakh train tickets are booked daily through this website. To provide fast service without any interruption to such a large user base and to keep it technically up-to-date, it became necessary to upgrade the entire structure of this website.
Question 6: Is this change limited only to the website’s design?
Answer: No, this is not just a change in external design. Indian Railways is also changing its backend system along with this. The decades-old passenger reservation engine is being upgraded in parallel.
Question 7: What challenges are being faced in changing the old passenger reservation engine?
Answer: The biggest challenge for Railways was that during this entire upgrade, the live service of train ticket booking could not be stopped even for a minute. Doing this work in the backend while the system was running was quite challenging. The new passenger reservation engine will also be launched soon.
Question 8: When will the new website become fully functional?
Answer: Since work is ongoing simultaneously on both the passenger reservation engine and the new website, the Railways has clarified that after taking user feedback from the beta version and completing the engine work, a fully functional new IRCTC portal will be made available to everyone within the next few weeks. Until then, passengers can use the beta version and also continue normal booking from the old portal.
Tips for Readers: How to give feedback on the new website?
- Click on the beta version link provided on the IRCTC website.
- Go to the new interface, login and experience the ticket booking process.
- Go to the ‘Feedback’ option on the homepage and share how you found the new layout.
- If you face any difficulty in viewing seats or making payment, submit it with a screenshot so that the Railways can fix it before the final rollout.
