Wednesday was the first day of booking railway tickets four months in advance and there was a huge rush at counters. But the record seems to have been set by IRCTC website with 13.45 lakh tickets booked on a single day.  The online rush was such that the IRCTC's servers broke down a few times during the day. Normal bookings are about 5 lakh tickets.

Here are the numbers:  A total 13,45,496 rail tickets including 1,25,790 Tatkal tickets booked. Total collection amount for online booking was Rs 2,50,6552,814. This includes  IRCTC service charge of Rs 43,033,947.

The four month window opened in time for summer holiday season and there was heavy movement of passengers in Delhi and other major metros.

Meanwhile, the railway ministry is allowing only one booking in one user login session while reserving tickets on the IRCTC website.

According to a statement issued by the railways, there will be a restriction of only one booking in one login session, after which the user, including IRCTC agents, will get logged out automatically. For another booking, the person will have to log back in and the same process will follow.

And now, the railway passengers would be able to book their tickets, do shopping and pay service bills using RuPay pre-paid cards.

The service was launched by the IRCTC in collaboration with the Union Bank of India and the National Payment Corporation of India.

RuPay is India's own card payment gateway network like Visa and Master Card, and provides an alternative system for banks to provide a debit card service.

Cards can be made available from UBI offices or through IRCTC online. Initially the service will be available for booking tickets and later on shopping and bill payments will be added.

In order to make the card attractive, reward points will be given on each transaction.

One can have the card with a loading limit of Rs 10,000 with partial "Know Your Customer" (KYC) detail or Rs 50,000 loading limit with full KYC.

The IRCTC has also tied up with Amazon.in to give customers the joy of convenient online shopping.

Through IRCTC website, customers can now buy products like consumer electronics items, books, shoes, apparels, pet supplies, musical instruments and many more from Amazon.in.