Better train connectivity set to be in place for Hill Dickinson Stadium next season

Everything gives off a feel that no one on the council has really got to grips with it and the strategy sounds a bit like "let's just hope everyone walks there".

If it was the other lot, the council would have bent over backwards to help them. No amount would have been too great for the red shite.

The recent conclusion about the location of BMD was that it should never have been built there. I said when the site was chosen that it was not suitable because it's only one way in, and one way out.

Building it right next to a major transport link (not suited for pedestrians) was madness. We will see when the test event takes place, just how difficult or easy to get in and out.

The pedestrian links from town and along the river should have been built along with the stadium. Putting them in place after is ridiculous. The council should be embarrassed with the sheer lack of professionalism regarding fans getting to and from BMD safely.

Now telling fans not to use Sandhills station, unbelievable! Let's hope all goes well with the test event, but it will not be with anything the council has done.

I believe the council probably thought the stadium wouldn't get built, so did nothing in way of the transport structure.

If the RS had built it, a new station would have been done.

Plagiarism is a form of flattery, only joking! 😁

Put a ferry terminal near to the ground and establish a park and sail system on the Wirral. This will ease congestion, with less cars travelling through the tunnels, and increase revenue at the ground, as more people will have a shandy or two in the bars inside.

A new station nearer to the ground would help enormously. A couple of multistory car parks wouldn't go amiss either. Maybe the club could acquire the land and build them, bringing more money in. It's not rocket science, is it?

Unfortunately, that is common on the London Underground, arguably the most extensive transit system in the world, with trains every 2 minutes.

London has a population of 9 million residents. At certain times, with visitors, there are probably in excess of 15 million.

Hit the underground at rush hour on a good day, and you struggle to squeeze onto a carriage and often have to wait for the next one as the doors won't close.

As you said, it's not rocket science for someone to say, "Hang on, we need to plan for 50,000 fans getting in and out and to BMD before anything else is agreed on."

Come to think of it, the people on the council are still apparently in the Stone Age, so rocket science hasn't been invented for them yet.

Have a few day tripper boats with alcohol licences, to gently move Evertonians into the adjacent dock!

The majority of fans (including opposition supporters) trying to get through a small number of gaps in the dock wall. An inadequate rail provision, with a hopelessly small station.

The city narrowly avoided a disaster a few weeks ago. There is scope for mayhem.

With money from the government coming into the region to help with transport infrastructure, it will be very interesting to see how LCC, spend the money.

I've read people on ToffeeWeb, talking about a monorail, going right the way along the waterfront, and think that there could be a massive amount of money to be made by a private company if anyone invested in such a scheme.

I say this because there are a lot of residents living all the way along the waterfront now from this side of Otterspool, all the way to the soon to be developed Tabacco warehouses and this is only going to increase imo.

This plus a large percentage of the 52,888 going to Hill Dickinson Stadium every other week would I'm sure bring in a huge profit over time because of the demand. Even though I'm not sure how expensive it would be to develop, it would definitely be worth it in the long term.

Above all the mayhem you talk about Peter, it's the exit points that are the biggest concern to me right now, mate, because I got a weird feeling when I look at those walls that they would have definitely been moved if they weren't listed.

If car parking provision was addressed during planning, it was simply to note there won't be any. The Council wanted to make a virtue of green transport provision.

That would be fine if public transport was up to scratch. Plainly, as in the whole of the UK outside London, it isn't.

Somebody/s have displayed mega recklessness and neglect in letting things get this far.

Never in the whole history of the docks have 50,000 people descended en masse to any part of them – not even when Mae West visited in late 1947!

As someone who worked in editorial for years and years, I should know – and I do.

Like I said, 100% poo.

I'd go for "Transport Mayhem — Forever!"

Anjishnu is a young writer learning his craft, and I give him credit for not falling into the common online practice of "clickbait" headlines that attract eyeballs at the expense of accuracy.

Anjishnu may be a bit ponderous with his phrasing (okay, maybe more than a bit), but he's scrupulous. He'll get better.

I use Merseyrail every home game and catch the soccer bus from Sandhills. I was given a preview of what to expect with the early kick-off on Grand National day. We gave ourselves an extra half-hour travel time. When we arrived at the station for the 10:45 train ,it was delayed and did not arrive until 11:20. By this time, three 8-coach trains had passed on the way to Ormskirk.

When we finally boarded the train, it was packed and was still quite full with Everton fans after leaving Aintree. As we pulled into Walton, an announcement was made that the train was terminating and to leave the train.

The next train arrived around 10 minutes later. We decided to leave at Kirkdale and walked, reaching our seats just as the siren and Z-Cars sounded.

The new station would only feed the city centre for a few hours on match day and Sandhills could do what it always does and help feed people going elsewhere.

A monorail makes sense, another landing stage on the river makes sense. With the huge volume of people, I'm not sure how trackless trams would operate safely, but as everyone is repeatedly stating, we definitely need a lot more infrastructure, especially for those cold, wet days in winter that are definitely not for the faint-hearted if things don't improve on the pitch

And for those complaining about car parking Goodison isn’t exactly overflowing with car parks. Stanley Park car park is about 3/4s of a mile and pretty much anything else is residential so people gamble on getting a ticket.

I am surprised that a Park and Ride from Stanley Park hasn’t been proposed as a solution.I’m sure over time some of the local wasteland or entrepeneural businesses with parking facilities near BMD will offer parking.

Another option is we turn the fan plaza into a mass parking lot for electric scooters and we can whizz into town on those

The long term Merseyrail strategy included building a new station roughly between the Titanic Hotel and the new stadium but this was quietly dropped about 10 years ago.

Current bus services between town and the north docks is non existent. I think there's one bus a DAY along Great Howard Street and none along Regent Road.

Monorails, trams and ferries are a non starter because of the initial capital outlay for a service which would only really be used for around a maximum of 50 games and events a year.

After the fiasco following the first test event Rotheram was panicked into coming up with the plan for a bridge over the station, to the northern platform. Work has yet to start but even if it began now it would take months to build.

Rotheram is obsessed with the ridiculous bendy buses as the solution to link the city centre to the football grounds and the airport. Meanwhile, Andy Burnham has secured funding to extend the MCR tram network to Stockport!

Fiddling around with Sandhills won't solve the problem. The station is too small and that's it. The only real solution is to build a new station nearer to the stadium.

Was it Wyness who said they expected a majority of fans to travel by bicycle??

Anyone have BMDs planning application? MK?

(If the powers-that-be could remove my comment @17 I'd be much obliged.)

Kev @30, I wouldn't be too hard on yourself. Sometimes the emotion gets to all of us.

Not necessarily this particular one, but I personally don't know why people get over-excited about the title. I tend focus on the content.

Keep posting Kev.

Also thanks to Mike for the thoughtful way he pointed out that my tackle was maybe a bit on the high side. I've had a word with myself.

(But you've made me think so no

#### from now on)

😘

Danny, you are the king of tabloidy headlines!

I’m sure your match reports are sometimes delayed until you’ve thought up a headline!

“Tractor obstruction”

“Pain at the lane”

To name but two of your best!

Especially as they have made it impossible to drive there and put up all the car parks more people will be using trains to get to town

Rotheram is an absolute clown, he's had years to sort this out. He knows he's safe no matter what and will get voted in regardless

There you go Andy

I guess it does help alleviate pressure, as would other initiatives.

The best way to use the ferries would have been to build a landing stage at the stadium.

I do notice the difference when I travel up from London and use South Parkway, but never had a problem with Northern, Transport for Wales or West Midlands franchises.

But that is on the west coast mainline as well as Merseyrail, so well-served.

Also, it has 6 platforms serving both. For me, that design should have been the benchmark for a station near the Everton Stadium.

As for a buses from town, at the last test event, I counted 3 buses doing shuttles from outside the Empire. Maybe they'll put 6 on?

I haven't lived in Liverpool for a couple of decades, but the question would be where would it run from/to, so as to provide demand to justify the investment. 20-25 game / event days a year at BMD won't cut it.

That's what the route would need to take into account tourism and run along the waterfront.

The Wuppertal "Schwebebahn" overhead suspended system in Germany is a good example. It takes pressure off the roads.

Not Everton related, I always said a monorail should have been installed between the new airport and south parkway. It would have been a much better experience than waiting for a bus.

It works at Düsseldorf between the airport and station and many other airports I've been to around the world.

I think that train has sailed now. As you know, it would be a huge project and not quick.

We have the river Alt but it might be a bit small for a ferry.

Of course I guess in the UK you need to add in other factors - like the "HS2 component" - so multiply any final figure by 3, and treble the implementation time!

MPs are basically just voting fodder. A city region mayor gets paid much more than an MP and has much more power.

I don't think EFC can get away without taking some responsibility mind when did fans ever come high on any football clubs agenda.
For the coming season we have paid for a parking place at a local school, I say local its a 30 minute walk from BMD.

Your pay is dictated by the size of the region you are in control of. The West Midlands Mayor receives just over half of what Burnham is paid.

Yes, they have more control than an MP in the area, but constraints of money coming into the area dictate what it can be spent on and Greater Manchester has received far more investment than Merseyside.

I take it back, the man is a genius with forethought beyond anything I have ever encountered – wow! My apologies for thinking he wasn't on the ball from the start!

I will now happily pay my inflated council tax with glee and joy!

In Tokyo they hire people to push you on – a stray errant limb popping outside the door – no worries – we'll push and bend it so you can go on your merry way!

Funding does, of course, depend on the size of a region but it also depends on the lobbying, vision and ambition of the mayor. Burnham has the latter two but Rotheram doesn't.

A recent example was the Liverpool - Manchester joint bid for another train service from Liverpool to Manchester Airport. They get a new underground station at Piccadilly and improved links to other Manchester stations. All we get is another train to Manchester Airport when we already have one.

Rotheram was part of the bid which made no mention of a link to Liverpool Airport. His solution is a bendy bus which will cost £Ms just to alter road junctions to accommodate them. The 'integrated' rail-bus network he's always talking up is just one bus, the 10a, which stops outside Lime Street Station and none outside the even busier Central Station.

A few years ago, I asked him about bidding for funding to bring the missing Merseyrail link, the outer rail loop, back into use but I had to explain to him what and where it was. The man lacks vision and ambition and is small-time. Unfortunately, we're stuck with him.

Make the dock road pedestrians only for the period an hour before and after the match until such time as they sort that one out.

As for car parking I still think they missed a trick by filling all of the dock in. They could have had parking under the pitch area at least. When they build a multi storey building the first thing they do is excavate a big hole - for a car park.

Maybe they will do that below whatever gets built on the Nelson dock.

I can see a situation where the only way to make sure is by boat. No need to worry about traffic jams… but what an absolute farce.

Many of us think, the authorities should supply a service, but we are now in a period of, if it does not make a profit, we are not interested.

Eric, last time I checked, the Mersey doesn't flow through Huyton (Andy @44). Ha-ha! Comments like this are one of the reasons I enjoy TW.

Kinell Kev [...] You've had a mare, mate! (Mark @33) Don't know what you mean, Mr Murphy. Okay, I scored a hat-trick of own goals, conceded a penalty and then got sent off... but apart from that, I thought it went quite well!

I think private investment might sort things out (eventually) – for example, as said, car parks that maybe the club own that can be used all year round too, plus hotels and the like.

It has been proven that you cannot rely on local or national government when it comes down to it.

Maybe Moshiri was onto something when he precluded the local council from involvement – after all, the then Mayor was later arrested for alleged 'irregularities' and alleged nepotism.

It will be interesting to see what happens to the open ground car parking area at Bullens Road and Walton Lane.

A ridiculous amount of money but, hey, I want to tell my grandkids (if I ever have any) about seeing the first game at our shiny new stadium.

“Oi, lad, where’s me prawn sandwich, like?”

I have been using the Stanley Park Car Park for the best part of 25 to 30 years and asked the lady supervisor at the end of last season precisely that question.

She was perplexed that the club hadn't approached the owners (Liverpool FC ??? - my question, not hers) about continuing to use the car park with a shuttle provision, and referred me instead to the fact that the Brick Pub had come up with the idea instead.

In my opinion the only realistic short term solution is to have a load of buses ready to take people back to car parks further afield.

Long term the ideas above all sound nice but I have no idea how viable they all are. This will be a problem for years in my view.

At least I'll have an excuse for why I've had to spend so much time in the pub when I get home to the missus!

The Wuppertal system is brilliant, it's clever, was cost effective, and a basically simple idea that's still used by countless commuters and tourists alike. Worth TWebbers have a Google.

Likewise the monorail from the airport. Why are we so backward in Britain? Or am I just company's with countries that get things done and things that work!

I'm in Meerbusch now Danny, driving home at the weekend.

£1 billion city plan could be 'as big as Liverpool One'

Huge plans have been put forward to create a landmark high-rise development on the edge of Liverpool city centre that city bosses believe could bring with it a pivotal moment for the city as a whole.

Whether it's now privately owned, I don't know but I never heard of the RS owning it.

Interesting that they seem to have “softened” the rules about the height of buildings as one of the restrictions on building BMD was the maximum height allowed.

Meerbusch. Close to some of my old stomping grounds.

I spent time in Krefeld and latterly, at a barracks close to the Dutch border called Effeld, near to Heinsberg. I'm sure you know of them.

I still visit the latter once a year, as well as my visits to Gelsenkirchen to watch the Konigsblauen.

I fly into Dusseldorf these days and pick up a hire car or get the train. I used to drive, but got fed up with Antwerp (Belgium). The traffic around that city makes the M25 look free-flowing.

Antwerp is shocking! They're putting in a new ring road and it's a nightmare to navigate! Brussels isn't much better either.

Setting off after breakfast and planning to do it in one go like I usually do. Once back in Blighty, the main problem is the M25……🤦🏼‍♂️

Utilise that on match days and put on a shuttle service say 1 1/2 hours before kick off and 1 1/2 hours after and the Club has a captive audience in BMD bars and makes more money.

Or maybe they'll use that for player parking and bus them in from there?

They could maybe generate more if they freed up the Fan Zone, but it wouldn't be significant.

I suspect they may retain that for the female fixtures.

The players will be taken straight to the stadium I would imagine.

Of course Danny, but I'm guessing the ladies won't be playing on the same day as the men so it can have a double use.

They could put a bike shed at BMD, name it "Uncle Cyril's"?

A modern equivalent would be as much a catalyst to the redevelopment of the TEN Streets and beyond as our, ahem, somewhat isolated new stadium will hopefully be.

And to think the stadium is still reliant on the very roadway the overhead used to cover!

Weird.