Eid train tickets sell out within 30 minutes on second day of sales

Westbound trains for the Eid-ul-Fitr holidays have been fully booked within 30 minutes of tickets going online on the second day of sales.

The sales opened on the Bangladesh Railway website at 8:00 am on Saturday. Tickets for the eastern region will be available from 2:00 pm.

“After the ticket sales began, there were 7.3 million hits [on the Bangladesh Railway website] between 8:00 am and 8:30 am,” said Md Mohabbatjan Chowdhury, a Bangladesh Railway official.

Advance train tickets will be available 10 days before the scheduled travel date. Saturday’s sales cover bookings for March 25.

However, tickets for March 31, April 1, and April 2 will be released based on the sighting of the moon for Eid.

This year, 35,315 advance tickets will be available daily from Dhaka for Eid journeys.

At 8:03 am, a check on the Bangladesh Railway ticketing website showed a few available seats, including 38 Snigdha-class and 8 AC seats on the Rajshahi-bound Silkcity Express, 3 Snigdha-class seats on the Bonolota Express, and 8 AC and 19 Snigdha-class seats on the Dhumketu Express.

However, just two minutes later, all AC and Snigdha-class tickets were sold out.

Tickets for AC coaches on routes to Rangpur, Dinajpur, Panchagarh, Parbatipur, Natore, Khulna, and Benapole were fully booked within the first 10 minutes.

By 8:30 am, all but one Shovon Chair ticket had been snapped up.

“Now, all tickets are sold online. Because of the high demand, they sell out very quickly. Since everything is digital, very few people come to the station to buy tickets. On Friday, a couple of people visited, but hardly anyone came today,” said Kamalapur Station Master Md Anwar Hossain.

Since Eid-ul-Fitr 2023, Bangladesh Railway has switched to a fully online ticketing system for Eid travel. To reduce server congestion, a two-shift ticketing system (morning and afternoon) was introduced last year.