MANCHESTER commuters were left baffled after the city’s tram service appeared to commit a group of over 20 ticket inspectors to one platform.
The crowd of hi-viz wearing workers was snapped on a platform in the city centre on Wednesday ahead of the Manchester United vs Sheffield United match.
With the match still hours away and seemingly no other reason for the excessive number of inspectors, locals questioned the need.
The commuter who snapped the group also claimed that, despite having already paid his fare, the inspectors proceeded to hassle him to pay again.
The photo shows inspectors manning the steps onto the platform, checking the tickets of those hoping to board a tram.
Whilst seven inspectors can be clearly seen, the bloke claims the image “doesn’t do it justice”, and that over 20 in total were spread throughout the platform.
Sharing the photo to social media on Wednesday, the man wrote: “This picture doesn’t do it justice, they go right the way down the platform, at least 20 of them.
“I tapped off further up the platform and when I got to the end, they tried to get me to tap their machines even when I explained I’d already tapped out.
“In the end I had to go up to the inspectors who saw me do it further up the platform to get them to leave me alone… this feels a tad excessive no?”
The man’s post received over 640 likes and more than 130 comments from social media users left bewildered by the strange show of force from the ticket inspectors.
One user commented: “They need to update the machines to understand if you’ve tapped out in the past few minutes. Pretty unacceptable that they haven’t done that.
“Barriers aren’t an option because the stations are unmanned. You’d end up with honest people stuck unable to get staff help, and dodgy people just climbing over.”
Another added: “I know of someone who has a theory that there is no ticket checking on the days United play at home as they’re all needed to man Old Trafford and Wharfside later in the day and therefore he doesn’t buy a ticket.
“I wonder how he got on today. I’ve had my ticket checked three times today.”
A third wrote: “Why are they at one stop? Rather spread out between stations?”
Another joked: “But did they manage to change the lightbulb?”
