Online train reservations: CGR’s scam ride Kandy to Ella

A Maldivian national who is a friend of mine asked me to book train tickets from Kandy-Ella on 1 May 2024. I happily accepted the favour. I knew the times that tickets open and I always knew that this train was in heavy demand by foreigners. So, I knew I had to get in fast and buy the tickets fast. That was the plan. In reality it was a scam.

I waited until the exact second it opened and clicked on the button. As expected, all the tickets of 2 trains opened, nearly 250 seats. I selected 2nd class tickets and went into payments. And the site crashed, which is not good but acceptable for sites with heavy demand. The problem was when I re-entered the site for the 2nd time after just 15 seconds from ticket opening. All 250 tickets were gone. 

Some of you may think, it is in such big demand so everything was sold in 15 seconds. No. That’s not the case. Someone deliberately blocks all the tickets immediately after they open. That’s the reason why I failed in the 1st attempt even after proceeding to the payment. Condition says a person can only book a maximum of 5 seats. So it’s not possible for all tickets to disappear 100% in just a few seconds. It can go down gradually but this clearly indicates a scam. 

The only train journey in Sri Lanka with such a big demand from foreigners is Kandy to Ella. So obviously whoever may have access to these tickets can make quite a lot of money. Isn’t it incredible that these tickets are available on https://12go.asia/ for a 3-4 times the price. 

Having experienced first-hand, the train on 1 May 2024 from Kandy – Ella is a good case study to investigate this.

• Check who blocked 100% of these tickets in its entirety immediately after opening?
• Who actually bought these tickets? Is it ordinary individuals or corporates?
• And how is it that a 3rd party website 12go.asia can have the same ticket for 3-4 times the rate. And how do they get tickets? 
• By definition Online Train ticket Reservations should offer a level playing field for everyone to participate. Who is misusing this opportunity for their personal advantage? 

Having failed my friend, I observed the situation for 2 more days thereafter. On 2 May nearly 5 trains opened. And ticket booking looked normal and what was expected. In summary, it did not have any signs of manipulation. However, on 3 May once again only 2 trains opened and the exact same thing happened. Immediately after ticket opening everything was gone in a second.