Network Rail has issued advice to people travelling by rail to Liverpool Lime Street for the Grand National. Aintree‘s horse racing festival returns this Thursday, and large crowds are expected.

Railway racegoers are encouraged to:

• plan their journey and check the national rail website before travelling
• allow extra time to catch the train home – later services will be extremely busy with queuing systems in place
• remember Network Rail‘s motto of ‘Be safe, be patient, be kind’ when travelling.

Network Rail hopes that these tips will help racegoers “stay ahead of the pack and avoid a fall at the first fence”.

The day of the 2022 Grand National Final – Saturday 9 April – was Liverpool Lime Street’s busiest that year with more than 81,000 passengers travelling through the station. Additional staff will be on hand at Liverpool Lime Street station to help passengers over the weekend from Thursday 13 until Saturday 15 April.

The station team has been planning for weeks to get ready for the thousands of extra passengers expected. A queuing system may be in use for people to safely board trains, to avoid any “jockeying” for position.

Regular Merseyrail services will run to and from the racecourse.

Kyla Thomas, Liverpool Lime Street station manager, said: “We’re really looking forward to welcoming Grand National-goers back to Liverpool Lime Street in what’s shaping up to be a very busy Spring for us at the station.

“I’ve got three top tips for passengers travelling to Aintree: firstly, plan ahead and know what train you want to catch before the day of the races. Secondly, allow more time than you might do usually to get on the train – there may be queues. And thirdly, please respect each other and our staff while travelling – we want everyone to enjoy their rail journey to and from the races free from any bad behaviour.”