Everton stadium fan zone plans unveiled for station
Liverpool City Council has received proposals for land at Sandhills to help deal with crowd management near the club’s future Bramley-Moore Dock home.
Everton FC are set to make the move from Goodison Park to their stadium next summer.
Merseytravel, which operates Sandhills, the nearest rail station to the stadium, is seeking to create a hub for fans going to and from the ground, from the city centre.
The operator has worked with Everton, the city council, the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority, and British Transport Police in drawing up this scheme.
Their application covers the proposed construction of a crowd management zone with a barrier/queueing system, a corralling area, a modular welfare building, storage containers, and other on-site infrastructure.
A design and access statement produced for Merseytravel by CBRE explains it is necessary to provide a fan waiting area outside the stadium to segregate and manage flows onto the platforms.
The crowd management zone was also a Section 106 requirement of the planning permission for the stadium.
As well as helping with the convergence of passengers for the football land events, the corralling area may also be used by Merseyrail passengers queuing for bus replacement services should there be disruption on the rail network.
Liverpool City Council will decide on the plans at a future date. The Bramley-Moore Dock stadium is scheduled to be completed before the end of this year, ready for the start of the 2025-26 football season.
Subject to planning permission, a contractor will be appointed to carry out the work later this year in advance of test events taking place in 2025.
CBRE leads the project team which also includes Caulmert, Merseytravel, NLG Ecology, 1st Line Defence, Mini Soil Surveys, and Bupo Happold.
To view the plans, search for application reference number 24F/1938 on Liverpool City Council’s planning portal.
Further short-sighted plans from LCC & Peel. A tram loop to James St gives people access to the mainline and will give all the new builds due, car free access to the city centre… Instead we get some barriers in a car park and a portacabin to wait for a 3 carriage train every 15 to 20minutes.. shouldn’t take too long to clear 10000 people !!
By G McCain
Shouldnt everton be paying for this and not the local tax payer?
By Anonymous
Why don’t they just build a new station at Boundary Street or the canal crossing?
By Gum
@anonymous no the tax payer should.
By Your donation appreciated.
Definitely need a proper system up there to cope with future residential developments and leisure facilities, best if one runs all the way through from Otterspool with about 10 stops in all.
The Bilbao tram is a great template as it runs through the city and passes the Atletic Bilbao stadium.
By Anonymous
No such thing is necessary currently at Bank Hall Station for Goodison. If they think people will be happy to be corralled into a pen they’ll be quickly disabused of that notion.
We’ll get the metro from Aigburth and alight at Sandhills, but we’ll walk back to Moorfields underground for the return leg. Penning fans in never works. Another idiot idea dreamt up by bureaucrats.
By Blue Boy
How is it short sighted? A 10 min walk to Sandhills station with 24 trains every hour and about 6 minutes away from central station McCain stop sprouting nonsense.
By Flan
Remember going to grounds in London eg Highbury,Upton Park, there was none of this setting up portakabins or welfare areas, you queued up and were marshalled by police/stewards to get into the tube, this all sounds a bit over the top.
By Anonymous
@ Flan: It’s not just about a football stadium but it should be used as the catalyst… Three weeks earlier Peel announced the framework for the regen from Bramley to Princes dock with approx 2500 ‘homes’. Imagine being able to step out of said homes and be able to step on to a tram into the centre of town. Or when the stadium is used for concerts.. city centre hotel to stadium.. I wonder why you think the idea is nonsense councillor…
By G McCain
Some people are very greedy. No need for the tram.
By Anonymous
The whole project was railroaded through with no thought given to infrastructure needed. It needs all kinds of supporting works. The billion pound football industry should have been asked to cough up to make it happen. They weren’t, and so you’ll get a holding pen.
Those thinking they’ll walk to Moorfields will be further upset to find out it will be closed for “crowd control” reasons.
By Jeff
This looks amazing .
By Steve Dyche
@ Anon 12.06pm, so Trams are greedy, that’s a strange comment, I think we have 7 cities/towns in the UK with tram networks, and once they were in nearly every town. Trams are reliable and carry more passengers than buses, and they can stop in more neighbourhoods than trains.
By Anonymous
@ Flan @ Anonymous (Greedy).. I had the pleasure of visiting Toronto last year for Baseball & Football.. A train from the airport to city centre (imagine!) a subway to my accommodation and a tram to the stadiums.. have a look at the waterfront there, its like here but with zero need for a car. This city has the opportunity to transform this section into something brilliant with a bit of forward thinking and bravery, but lets just leave things as they are shall we..
By W Carson