The Hill Dickinson has given Everton the home supporters waited years for, but getting almost 53,000 people to and from Bramley-Moore Dock was always going to be one of the challenges.
Liverpool councillor Carl Cashman was outside the stadium at the weekend asking Evertonians how they actually get to and from matches.
“Nearly 53,000 people, but only one small station…” he wrote on X afterwards.
The station in question is Sandhills, around a mile from the ground, and its ability to cope with Everton crowds was being discussed long before the club moved in.
Sandhills has long been part of the discussion
Liverpool City Region documents identified the potential pressure on Sandhills years ago. At Everton’s first 10,000-capacity test event in February 2025 there were then complaints about overcrowding, with concerns raised about how the station would cope with considerably larger crowds.
Work has been done since. Sandhills has a second entrance and pedestrian footbridge, while matchday arrangements include additional rail capacity, shuttle buses and measures to manage the flow of supporters using the station.
Merseytravel’s current advice doesn’t send everybody towards Sandhills either. Bank Hall and Moorfields are among the alternatives, while supporters are advised to expect queues and allow extra time for their journeys.
None of that sounds like a club or local authorities who didn’t think about transport before the stadium opened. It does, though, show why the issue was being discussed in the first place. Moving almost 53,000 people away from the banks of the Mersey at the end of a match is a considerable logistical job, and Sandhills can only handle so many of them.
There will always be queues outside a football ground after a game, especially one of this size. The more useful question now is whether the arrangements already in place are coping well enough, and what more can realistically be done if they aren’t.
Cashman’s conversations with supporters should at least provide some answers from the people making those journeys every other week.
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