Staff Reporter :
Online train ticket sales through the Bangladesh Railway’s official website and mobile app have been suspended since Thursday night, causing immense suffering for passengers ahead of the Eid rush.
The issue, which also disrupted software at station counters, has forced railway authorities to revert to issuing handwritten Black Paper Tickets (BPT), which are valid only for standing travel.
Reports of the service disruption first surfaced from Dhaka’s Kamalapur Railway Station and quickly went viral on social media. With no prior warning or public notice, frustrated passengers were left waiting in long queues only to find out that neither digital nor regular printed tickets were available.
Passengers at various stations said there was no way to confirm seat availability, and only standing-room-only handwritten tickets were being provided. Many criticized the authorities online, questioning the lack of contingency planning and transparency during such a critical travel period.
Bangladesh Railway Director General Md Afzal Hossain explained, “Last night, the ticket sales website server became slow. While trying to fix that, the entire system shut down. We are currently serving passengers with printed tickets, although all of our advance tickets have already been sold out.”
He added that the technical team has been working to resolve the issue since Thursday night and expressed hope that the system would be restored by Friday noon.
The ticketing system is managed by Shohoz-Synesis-Vincen JV, a joint venture responsible for digital ticketing for Bangladesh Railway. As of Friday afternoon, neither the website nor the app had resumed operations.
Photos from Kamalapur Station on Friday morning showed significantly lower crowds compared to the typical pre-Eid rush, with several passengers expressing uncertainty over their travel plans due to the ticketing chaos.
This outage has further fueled criticism of the ongoing reliance on third-party operators for vital public services, especially during peak travel seasons.
