Manchester Trams Gestapo staff

gyzmo

After reading a thread about trains in London, I am reminded of an incident in Manchester.

A while ago I used the Tram system in Manchester for the first time ever.
It was a Sunday Morning, about 630 am. I only had a £20 note.
The ticket machine said that it only gave change to a maximum of £7.00. My fare was £3.00, so there was no way I was losing a tenner, and I couldn't get change from elsewhere.

No problem, I thought, I will just pay teh inspectors on teh Tram. But Oooh no. Inspector comes along and I asked to buy a ticket. I was frogmarched off the tram, along with three other people, and asked to provide my details, duly noted on the inspector's notepad. She wrote on it "Can I buy tickets on this tram", apparently my first words to her (which wre in fact "A single to Old Trafford please). After refusing to sign the document, she threatened to call the police. Being late for work, I signed her document and added "under threat and protest".

I wrote a three page letter to the operating system, who agreed that staff were out of order, and "alloowed" me to pay the fair I intended to.

Interestingly enough, the other people who got kicked off the tram admitted that they had no money on them at all, and had no intention of paying, and a willing to pay passenger is treated in teh same way as these people are?

I am now aware of signs at tram stations saying that a valid ticked must be held before the start of the journey, but I will not be using their services again after the way I was treated.

If you are treated unfairly, complaining is always worthwhile.

sockospice

There are signs on all the ticket machines on the Bury line saying that if the machine won't accept your note, you need to call the helpline. If you do this, they will give you a reference number which you can quote to the inspectors if they get on.

hammy_the_hammer

it's to stop fare evasion. if having just a £20 note on you meant you were unable to use the ticket machine ...some people (not you , but people like the other two ) would always do the same thing ....if you get stopped you pay the fare with your £20, if you don't get stopped you get it for free.
most public transport systems have similar systems as described above, helplines / ticket validating machines when the station office is closed etc i suppose if it were took to court your defence using the £20 note might be questioned as would a ticket inspector have change , should you have made sure that you had suitable money to use ,etc
the honest people suffer unfortunately

Astaroth

Hmm... do you think that no one has ever claimed to "not have any change" when caught trying to get a free ride? Or the machine was broken? Or someone must have stolen their ticket?

Last time I was up there there was no shortage of signs saying you must get on a ticket valid for your journey before bording

nelly_2

A mate of mine got caught jibbing it to and from work in the same day cost him 40 quid...the nob.

The machines are allways knackering up too.

grex9101

Did it ever occur to your tiny mind that describing a member of staff as "Gestapo" was highly offensive?

They should have locked you up and thrown away the key.

gyzmo

Compared to the names I've been called in the past, no not really. I am not a politically correct person. the only offence I find is people who find offence where there is none to begin with.

JWVOODOO

i agree with you gyzmo, i see nothing wrong with what you said. people now days try to find fault with anything people say. just to have a moan.

i think grex should get on with playing street fighter 2.

Anwen_2

gyzmo wrote:

Compared to the names I've been called in the past, no not really.

It's not only offensive to the Manchester Trams employee who was, er, doing something perfectly reasonable, it's offensive full stop.

All public transport systems that i know of, if they do not have a conductor/pay the driver system, do not permit you to pay the inspector. Surely that's fairly obvious by the fact they are an inspector?? i.e. not a conductor!

grex9101

JWVOODOO wrote:

i agree with you gyzmo, i see nothing wrong with what you said. people now days try to find fault with anything people say. just to have a moan.

i think grex should get on with playing street fighter 2.

oooh, get you!

I think you would find that if the member of staff was a member of the gestapo, she would have been treated a lot more severely.
I thnik you'll find the concept is called "desensitization".

JWVOODOO

if gyzmo felt that the treatment he received resembled that, in his own opinion of a member of the gestapo then thats their opinion.
Also grex you stated about people offending you and you straight away suggested that gyzmo had a tiny little mind, to him that might be offensive and here you are banging on about offending people.

if gyzmo had said the tram employee was a moron, would there be a influx of people complaining he was offending morons? maybe you would still be offended then grex? :>)

also if gyzmo had likened them to the russian secret police(KGB), noone would have said a thing,