Manchester Confidential takes on Metrolink's ticket machines.

I am so tempted to print this out and leave it everywhere for everyone to see. What angers me even more about all this is the presence of the Greater Manchester police when they are checking tickets. For the most part they just collar commuters who, for whatever reason, didn't manage to grab a ticket.

And they have the time to be rent-a-cops because Manchester is so crime free right?

Folks will recognize this story and the comments. If they don't know the guy, they know the situation.

Paul Clegg was recently at Old Trafford Metrolink station with a handful of change. He fed into the ticket machine a variety of £1, 50p and 5p coins for his £3 peak return to town. The machine wouldn’t have anything to do with the 5ps and spat them out. Clegg tried a £5 note, it went into the note dispenser, paused tantalisingly and then rumbled out again.

A tram was coming, there were no shops nearby for change, and Clegg (name changed) had a business appointment. Sod it, he thought, what more can I do? He got on the tram without a ticket. At G-Mex he was collared by an inspector. No excuse was admissable, you can’t travel without a valid ticket, he was told.

“I suggested that I pay the £3 that I’d tried to pay," Clegg told Confidential. "The inspector could then check with CCTV to make sure I was being honest. He refused and I had to pay £10 there and then, or £20 later via cheque or credit card if I couldn’t do that. As I only had £8 that’s what I had to do.

Metrolink ticket inspectors are either on some pretty good or pretty bad commission. Don't you think? Bunch of shark-eyed greedy bastards that they are. It seriously takes a special breed of person to do something like the above.

What's even better about the below link is how Stagecoach doesn't think there's anything wrong with the machines.

Lots more angry commuters in the comments!

Manchester Confidential: Making crooks of us