Pelaw reaches social media fame with viral Twitter moment

Pelaw, a residential area in Gateshead is currently trending on Twitter, with many people who know the area joking about the reason why it could be.

Radio presenter Emil Franchi, tweeted a screenshot of Pelaw in the trending search section. He captioned the tweet: “Never thought I’d see the day”. He then replied to his own Tweet making light of the fact Pelaw is home to an Aldi and a Lidl close together. He wrote: “They’ve found out about the Lidl and Aldi being back to back.”

The tweet which reached 57 likes from those who know the area, also had a few replies. One person wrote: “Has someone pushed a snowball down from the top of the hill to the station?”, posting a gif of a person chasing a large snowball down a hill.

The real reason behind the Gateshead area trending is actually due to its metro station. The station serves as a link to both South Shields and Sunderland metro lines.

The South Shields to Pelaw line has been under construction for 13 weeks, with many people travelling from South Shields eagerly anticipating the return of the metro service. Resuming of the service was pushed back, but it has finally returned today.

Labour MP for South Shields Emma Lewell-Buck posted to Twitter: “Pleased to see the metro line reopening between Pelaw and South Shields! It’s a welcome relief to all of us in Shields to know it has returned with improved reliability following the £104m project.”

However, the re-opening did not go as smoothly as hoped, as metro users were hit delays on the first day of its return.