The Everton Fan Advisory Board has issued a statement confirming it has asked Merseyside Police, Liverpool City Council and Merseytravel to meet over transport chaos around the new ground.
Everton’s stunning new stadium has been a huge success for the club with 52,000 fans descending on Liverpool’s dockland to watch the side play and attend the Rugby League Ashes.
While the fan plaza and stadium has been widely praised, the lack of preparedness from the council on transport infrastructure has led to traffic congestion, large queues at Sandhills Station and issues with buses and shuttles to and from the ground.
The FAB says: “While acknowledging recent steps already taken, it is clear that concerns remain around lighting, pedestrian safety, and access. The council have acknowledged our request and we are in the process of scheduling to meet with them.”
The FAB says the meeting will review the effectiveness of current short term measures and to discuss the council’s long term vision when it comes to sustainable transport and access to the stadium and docklands.”
The latest issues have centred around shuttle buses being stuck in traffic along Great Homer Street and into the city centre, where a closed lane to cars has not had the desired effect in freeing up room for buses to transport fans.
The Fulham game also saw large queues at Sandhills Station amid issues with signal failures for trains into Liverpool.
There are further issues over placement of taxi pick up and drop off points and reports of many taxi drivers turning down fares to the ground because of the severe congestion around the stadium.
While the council has recently installed more lighting along Regent Road outside the ground, the raised kerbs of the cycle lane outside the stadium has also proved to be a hazard for fans when crowds can hide the different surfaces and cause people to trip.
Liverpool Metro Mayor Steve Rotherham baffled fans earlier this year when he suggested delays to any transport infrastructure plans were due to his uncertaintly over whether the stadium would be completed – despite very visible progress and updates from the club confirming development was on time and in budget.
He said: “There’s been a transport working group for three years and that’s been chaired by Everton Football Club, so all the planning for the new stadium has been some time in the making.
“The issue has been ownership of Everton Football Club and the uncertainty of whether the stadium would be completed.”
Rotherham did oversee the creation of a fan queuing system at Sandhills that has proved to be effective, with portable toilets and a new bridge allowing easier access off the platform also installed before the start of the season.
A new station, rumoured to be proposed between Sandhills and Moorfields, did not materialise and Rotherham has since suggested it would struggle for funding due to it only being needed for Everton match days.