Sandhills station expansion approved as Everton matchday queues targeted

Plans to expand the matchday queuing area at Sandhills station have been approved to ease crowd congestion around Everton home matches at the Hill Dickinson stadium. The Merseyrail scheme expands the fan management zone capacity by 150 percent, creating room for an additional 2,000 supporters traveling to and from matches following the club's move from Goodison Park.

While the project significantly enlarges the waiting space, it will not increase train frequencies due to Network Rail signaling infrastructure limits of 24 to 28 trains per hour. Approximately 20,000 rail journeys occur on matchdays, and planning committee documents confirmed that post-match pressure on the station had been anticipated since 2021.