Manchester Piccadilly — Local services in Manchester

Manchester Piccadilly train station is a great building but it is the worst train station I have ever got a train from. A few days ago I went to buy a single train ticket to Gatley and got to the station in plenty of time, 10 minutes before the train was to leave the station.

I got to one of the ticket machines to buy a ticket and this cost £2.30, got to the pay stage and it didn't accept cash, realised other ticket machines there also didn't accept cash. I thought okay well I will buy the ticket from the cashier at the ticket counter. I go to the counter and wait my turn only to be told that "We don't accept cash here there is one ticket machine in Piccadilly that accepts cash, this guy here will show you where it is" I follow another employee of Piccadilly that shows me where the cash ticket machine is, my Gatley ticket now costs £4.90, this is a 113% increase in ticket cost from a few minutes ago. I asked the employee who showed me the machine and he said it's because you are travelling within 5 minutes we are allowed to do that, he also told me that the system was updating the next day to not allow people to get tickets to trains within 15 minutes of a train departure time.

This is unbelievable that this ticket pricing and travel restrictions are allowed, cash payment also needs to be made available on all ticket machines. Bring back British Rail, a company that was run for the people not for profit or to push any stupid cashless society or travel restrictions on everyone...

I can't find a way to contact customer services so it'll have to be a review.

Whenever I arrive on platform 14 from Burnage - and only ever on that one platform- the staff are slow to assist with ramps and surly about it (although the train calls ahead) regardless of whether it was booked .. they often let new passengers embark , before I exit the train , so that the new passengers are put at risk when I do try to exit.

I've seen up to 5 staff stood chatting to each other while i sit in the train doorway wondering when they will notice.

Today i expect you'll get complaints from disgruntled customer's who were bumped into by my 87 kilo wheelchair after being asked twice politely not to crowd the hallway area by me. While 2 staff train and station staff just let them all in.. thereby putting them at risk and me.

Then im the one who looks like an idiot because i have to shout to get people away from the wheelchair. And it just causes unnecessary delays trying to get out with a hallway full of people in the way.

Can you please remind platform 14 that disabled people do sometimes JUST TRAVEL like other passengers and they STILL have to assist us . If they do it with good grace and correctly then it is much much quicker.

I know it's just slack service because the rest if the staff on other side are fine and the ones in the station.

I dread having to use it and why should i have to get a cab to avoid their...

The male staff who work on the platforms are predators and really do need background checks my little sister and I had a cancelled train , when asking for help the male staff were utterly disrespectful and disgusting my sister who is 15 and suffers with mental health was upset as she thought we couldn’t get home the only thing the male staff were interested in was her age , where she was from and if she had ID to prove she was 15 because they didn’t want to believe it ? I don’t know what my little sisters age and information has to do with finding us a way home . They wasn’t interested in finding us a train home they was just interested in chatting up my poor little sister who was distraught with the whole situation we had to get a Uber . They all stood there like it was a cult the energy was soo off and I believe if a group of young girls were unaccompanied with no parents these men would really go out there way to make some sort of conversation with them as it happened to us when asking for help our conversation was interrupted by one male staff worker . If your children are left to travel by themselves please please accompany them as much as you can because the male staff workers at Manchester Piccadilly station are very dangerous . I believe it’s not the first or last time something like this has happened and I think it will continue until...