RAIL passengers travelling to Liverpool Lime Street and Aintree for the Grand National 2024 are being given top tips to help them get off to a winning start when the world-famous horse racing festival returns this Thursday.

With bumper crowds expected to travel to Aintree between April 11-13, railway racegoers are encouraged to:

• Plan your journey and check before you travel at 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.

Last year more than 105,000 journeys were made to and from Aintree over the three days, and this year is expected to be an even bigger event.

Kyla Thomas, Liverpool Lime Street 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.”

Additional staff will be on hand at Liverpool Lime Street station to help passengers over the weekend from Thursday, April 11 until Saturday, April 13.

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.

Merseyrail will run a special timetable, with a seven-and-a-half-minute frequency of service running between Liverpool City Centre and Aintree station before the start and after the finish of the races on each day of the festival.

Suzanne Grant, chief commercial officer and deputy managing director at Merseyrail, said: “We are delighted to once again provide a special timetable for The Randox Grand National 2024 Festival. This is a huge event for the Liverpool City Region, and Merseyrail is proud to play such a vital role in ensuring people have a great day at the races.

“Not only are we providing a seven-and-a-half-minute service, but as usual we will have entertainment and fun at the main stations festival goers will travel through.

“It’s always a busy time for us across the Merseyrail network, so I would advise anyone travelling over the three days to check before you travel by using the journey planner on our website or the Merseyrail app.

“In order to give customers the best experience, we recommend buying your ticket before you reach the station. Full details can be found at merseyrail.org/aintree-races/.”