City region officials said the station is doing "exactly what it should do" despite concerns from Evertonians
Some Everton fans make their way home via Sandhills Station
Some Everton fans make their way home via Sandhills Station(Image: Liverpool Echo)
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Merseyside transport chiefs have rejected suggestions Sandhills is too small to handle the number of passengers using it on matchdays and is in fact “doing exactly what it should do.” Less than 24 hours after Everton supporters were left stranded at the station after their Carabao Cup tie at Hill Dickinson Stadium, officials have said they are pleased with how it has performed since the Blues relocated from Goodison Park last year.
Representatives from Liverpool City Region Combined Authority, Merseyrail, Liverpool Council and Everton FC appeared before the region’s transport committee earlier today. On normal matchday, around 20,000 passengers make their journey through Sandhills, the nearest stop on the Merseyrail network to the stadium on Regent Road.
Simon Finnie, the combined authority's head of network performance, said while there was still work to do to improve performance, stakeholders had been heartened by how public transport had responded to the challenges of Everton’s relocation from L4. There are also no plans to build a new station to serve the stadium but it “remains an aspiration.”
It was revealed earlier today how some fans were left waiting for an hour after a train had to be taken out of service owing to a camera fault on board a service after the match last night. Merseyrail issued an apology to fans impacted by the delay.
READ MORE: Merseyrail explains why Everton fans left stranded at Sandhills after Carabao Cup match
Mr Finnie said: “We are very pleased with how the move from Goodison Park has gone. It’s been a challenge along the way but I think collectively we’ve done an excellent job, not without bumps in the road, there’s still work to do but we’re pleased where we are.
“It was never going to be simple and straightforward trying to understand how habits of a lifetime, as people were going to Goodison Park, are going to change suddenly when Everton move to Hill Dickinson Stadium.” Mr Finnie said 96 units across bus and train travel per hour were available within the Premier League standard of two miles around the ground.
Regarding Sandhills, Mr Finnie said work had been undertaken in phases to adapt to the increased use of the station including the implementation of the queuing area and footbridge. The proposed extension of the space will be decided on by Liverpool Council’s planning committee next week.
Should it be approved, more than £6m will have been spent on upgrades to Sandhills to meet the demands of more fans using the station. He said collectively partners had “stepped up to that challenge.”
Mr Finnie added: “It’s not inconsiderable, a lot of work has been done, and the station is doing exactly what it should do.” On getting fans on to trains after a match, Mr Finnie said the organisations were “very pleased with the speed in which we’re able to clear Sandhills.”
Everton fans make their way home via Sandhills station
Everton fans make their way home via Sandhills station(Image: Liverpool Echo)
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Dan Lamont, Merseyrail senior operations project manager, told the committee how the start to life of Evertonians using Sandhills more regularly was “a challenge.” He added: “It was really difficult for ourselves in terms of the performance.”
Mr Lamont said this was primarily around understanding which routes would be busiest. He said: “Unlike Aintree where we know where everyone is going to go, (at) Sandhills you can go everywhere.
“It was really difficult each game to see how many people were going everywhere, so to try and spread that capacity out was quite difficult.” Mr Lamont said “in an ideal world” each service would offer eight cars to get passengers on board but capacity needs to be spread across the network and was something the organisation still hadn’t “fully grasped.”
On “most occasions” Mr Lamont said, the station is cleared within 45 minutes to an hour on matchdays, with an average wait of 10 minutes to get a train to Liverpool or 20 minutes elsewhere. He added: “Again, we’re still trying to get better but compared to where we were at the start of the year, I do believe we’re much better.
“Our apologies to the fans who had to go through us on that journey and hopefully they can see that we are getting better and we are trending in the right direction.”
Everton supporters outside Sandhills station
Everton supporters outside Sandhills station
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Mr Finnie admitted Sandhills wasn’t perfect but said the system was working safely, efficiently and getting people to and from the stadium as quickly as possible. Asked about the size of the station from Wirral councillor Jeff Green, he said: “In answer to your question is Sandhills too small, no it isn’t.
“It’s handling more than enough passengers through in the hour.”
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Mo Maghazachi, on behalf of Everton FC, said the club chairs a transport working group bringing together all the relevant organisations to help ensure fans can get to and from matches at Hill Dickinson Stadium safely. He added: “Goodison has had probably 130 years worth of organic transport planning built around it over time.
“It also had transport improvements and infrastructure built around it over time. We are moving all of that, lock, stock and barrel to a brand new stadium and encouraging new transport habits to come off the back of that as well.
“Clearly there’s a drive across the board to drive people out of their vehicles and onto public transport and that was a central part of all of our transport planning from the off.”