Manchester’s Taylor Swift cut-out will stay in flat window after owner moves out

Taylor Swift fans knew they were in trouble when the owner of a life-size cut-out of the singer decided to move out.

For five years, people aboard Manchester’s Metrolink going from Cornbrook to the city centre have looked up to see Swift smiling back down at them.

But commuters feared a blank space would be all they’d see after Red Redmond, 32, said they were moving to Sheffield, South Yorkshire.

‘I own the infamous Taylor Swift cut-out you can see from the tram. I am moving to Sheffield next week,’ Red, a comedian and drag queen, tweeted on January 4.

‘The future of #TramTaylor is uncertain.’

They added: ‘FYI if anyone wants to rent a two-bedroom apartment in Castlefield it costs £950pm and comes with a FREE cardboard cut-out of Taylor Swift.’

Red Redmond, who owns the cut-out of Red singer, is moving to Sheffield (Picture: Red Redmond / SWNS)

Hundreds of lovers rallied to save the replica of the Red hitmaker, calling on Red to stay in Manchester. Some even lobbied mayor Andy Burnham to step in.

Tagging Burnham, PR worker Josh Wheeler tweeted: ‘THIS is what you need to be solving today.’

Teaching assistant Jane Horton wrote: ‘Our family is thrown into disarray – “text me when you pass Taylor” so I can meet you off the tram .. how will we cope ??

‘I have notified the family to warn them of the news.’

A third mourning Twitter user said: ‘Brightens my commute every morning. Don’t know why, I don’t even like Swift’s music much.

‘But damn it perks me up seeing her in your window. Thanks for making the drab commute a tiny bit brighter.’

User Lucas shared four videos from tram journeys past the cut-out. ‘She got me through uni last year, he said, ‘my one constant.’

But with commuters not ready for this Love Story to end, Red reassured Swifties that Tram Taylor isn’t retiring just yet.

Some had even offered to rent their flat just to keep Swift in the window.

They said: ‘I would obviously love to bring her with me but she’s obviously found her home in Manchester and she means a lot to so many people.

‘I can’t sell my flat because of a cladding issue and I need to rent it out so she’ll be staying in the window for the next few months.

‘My hope is that we can get someone to rent out the flat who will keep her in.

‘It sounds silly but I’ve had hundreds of direct messages basically requesting to rent the property and keep her in it.

‘Tram Taylor’ has been a constant in many commuter’s lives, they tweeted (Picture: Red Redmond / SWNS)

‘It’s crazy how many people have messaged – I think it’s added value to my flat, to be honest.’

Red first propped up Tram Taylor in 2017 after swinging by a Swift-inspired club night at the Leadmill.

They said: ‘Six months after she had been up, I started to see some tweets of people discussing her online.

‘Basically, every year since I’ve had her in the window, it just suddenly goes viral and there will be people tweeting or talking about it.

‘She just gets seen by thousands of people every day because she’s on their commute to work or people see her on their way home.’

Even though Tram Taylor has no legs and has been washed out by years in the sun, Red knows the cut-out singer means a great deal to people.

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‘She’s kind of like a milestone or a marker for if you’re ten minutes from home for example,’ they said.

‘I’ve heard people say that they’ll text each other whenever they pass Taylor Swift because then it means their partner knows they are 10 minutes from home.’

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Hundreds rallied to save ‘Tram Taylor’.