Liverpool Lime Street's top travel tips for Grand National racegoers

Thursday 9 Apr 2026

Liverpool Lime Street's top travel tips for Grand National racegoers

Region & Route:: North West & Central: North West; | North West & Central

Rail passengers travelling to Liverpool Lime Street and Aintree for the Grand National 2026 are being given top tips to help them get off to a winning start as the world-famous horse racing festival returns today.

With bumper crowds expected to travel to Aintree between 9-11 April, railway racegoers are encouraged to:

Plan your journey and check before you travel at www.nationalrail.co.uk.

Allow extra time to catch your 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.

It's hoped this trio of tips will help racegoers stay ahead of the herd and avoid a fall at the first fence.

Last year more than 100,000 journeys were made to and from Aintree over the three days, and this year will be no exception.

Rachel Rahbarzare, Liverpool Lime Street's station manager, said: “We’re really looking forward to welcoming Grand National-goers back to Liverpool Lime Street and helping them travel safely to and from Aintree.

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

Suzanne Grant, chief commercial officer and deputy managing director at Merseyrail, said: “We’re delighted to once again provide a special timetable for The Randox Grand National Festival. As one of the biggest events in the Liverpool City Region, Merseyrail is proud to play a key role in helping people enjoy their day at the races and with Tap & Go now available across our network, travelling is easier than ever.”

To help customers get to and from the event, Merseyrail are running a 7½‑minute service between Liverpool Central & Moorfields stations in the city centre and Aintree at the following times:

Liverpool Central & Moorfields to Aintree: around 10:00–13:00

Aintree to Liverpool Central & Moorfields: around 16:30–20:30

A queuing system may be in use for people to safely board trains, to avoid any jockeying for position.

Find travel information and timetable changes on the Merseyrail website.

Notes to Editors

Improvement work continues over the Easter holidays, on the West Coast Main Line, in the North West and Scotland.

In the North West, between 11 – 19 April overhead line improvements will be completed on the West Coast Main Line between Preston, Lancaster and Fylde. There will be changes to trains North of Preston, with trains once again diverted onto the Settle-Carlisle line and bus replacement services in place for local stations.

In Scotland, between 11- 20 April, reliability improvements worth £3.5m will be completed on the West Coast Main Line in South Lanarkshire, Dumfries and Galloway and further south. Passengers are being asked to plan journeys south of Glasgow in advance.

Contact information

Passengers / community members
Network Rail national helpline
03457 11 41 41

Latest travel advice
Please visit National Rail Enquiries

Journalists
Network Rail press office - North West & Central Region
0330 854 0100
NWCmediarelations@networkrail.co.uk

About Network Rail

We own, operate and develop Britain's railway infrastructure; that's 20,000 miles of track, 30,000 bridges, tunnels and viaducts and the thousands of signals, level crossings and stations. We run 20 of the UK's largest stations while all the others, over 2,500, are run by the country's train operating companies.

Usually, there are almost five million journeys made in the UK and over 600 freight trains run on the network. People depend on Britain's railway for their daily commute, to visit friends and loved ones and to get them home safe every day. Our role is to deliver a safe and reliable railway, so we carefully manage and deliver thousands of projects every year that form part of the multi-billion pound Railway Upgrade Plan, to grow and expand the nation's railway network to respond to the tremendous growth and demand the railway has experienced - a doubling of passenger journeys over the past 20 years.

Media centre