Network congestion blocks the sale of online train tickets every year, with thousands trying to access the website of Saigon Railway Station to pre-book tickets for the Tet holiday season.
This year at 8am on December 10, the first day of sale of Tet tickets, the website of Saigon Railways Station www.vetau.com.vn indicated network congestion when people searching the website failed to open the site.
Nguyen Hoang Thinh, a student from the Finance and Marketing University in HCMC, said that within the first 30 minutes he tried logging in but failed to open the website. Thinking that the network at the Saigon Railway Station would be better, he rushed there but faced the same problem.
Thinh said he waited for half a day but the network was still congested. This condition seems to recur every year when sale for Tet tickets begins.
Hoang Thanh Hai from District 2 also could not access the website to book tickets. Network congestion occurs every year but the railway station has not done anything to change the situation.
Several people have complained that the information phone line at the station is also always busy.
According to Saigon Giai Phong reporters, several passengers could not access the website to book tickets from 8-10am on December 10. After 10am some could interruptedly surf the site but when they reached the booking section the network crashed.
Saigon Railway Station always has the same explanation for the network congestion that too many people access the website at the same time, causing overloading although the software provider had tried to repair the problem.
According to Saigon Railway Transport Company which manages the station, before 8am, only 2,000 people accessed the website and it ran normally. By 8am the numbers accessing the website reached 30,000-40,000 people which caused network congestion and blocked access to the website.
