A new tram stop has been built for Manchester Metrolink – or should that be Politanlink?! A new set for the popular ITV soap opera Coronation Street includes a tramstop – for the first time in the lengthy history of the show.
Weatherfield North has a street level station building with presumably stairs and ramp “access” to the viaduct where the trams have long “run past” the street. The new station building includes a ticket office – no ticket machines for the residents of Corrie obviously!
Of course Coronation Street is no stranger to trams with the infamous tram crash of 2010 which saw two established characters die. Scenes for this accident included T68 1015 which was renumbered 1030, reliveried into the Yellow and Silver colour scheme and become part of the Politanlink network. Trams have also been seen in the titles in the past and can also often be heard passing by during exterior scenes.
Coronation Street isn’t the first UK soap to have a transport station installed within the set. On Eastenders residents are able to escape by tube!
How ironic that the Coronation Street set has a simulated tram station now when the TV company who make the show was one of the objectors against the construction of the current new extension with the objection that the noise of the real trams going past would disrupt programme making.
I’m not surprised there was a crash in 2010… The bridge runs straight into the roof line of the houses backing on to the main street
Actually, that is rubbish isn’t it? The tram line runs along the arches at the other end of the street. But still there is a bridge that suddenly runs into a house roof (source: Google Earth of both the old and new sets.