News

Merseyrail will again be welcoming race-goers to the Grand National with an enhanced service and music, entertainment and of course – flip flops, at Aintree station.

Race-goers will be able to catch a train every 7 ½ minutes from Liverpool to Aintree before the races and from Aintree to Liverpool after the races. All trains will have 6 carriages. On Thursday and Friday, a 7 ½ minute service will run from approximately 12.00 – 13.30 before the races and 16.30 – 19.30 after the races. On Saturday, a 7 ½ minute service will run from approximately 11.30 – 13.30 before the races and 17.40 – 19.30 after the races.

Aintree station will host the Radio City stage which will feature live presenters, music to get
everyone ready for the races and Merseyrail Sound Station winner, KingFast, will be performing live on Friday evening. Plenty of staff will be on-hand to help passengers with any travel advice and will be a welcome sight to many race-goers at the end of the day as they hand out the Merseyrail flip flops.

The Merseyrail network will transport around 54,000 people to Aintree across the three days. Some lines on the Merseyrail network will experience changes to the usual service in order to
accommodate the increased demand for travel to Aintree. During selected times, there will be
service alterations on the Kirkby, Southport and Hunts Cross lines.

Passengers travelling from Kirkby to Liverpool are advised that between selected times, services will terminate at Sandhills and passengers should change at Kirkdale for services to Liverpool. This will apply to all services between 11.13 – 13.13 and 16.28 – 19.28 on Thursday and Friday, and 10.58 – 13.13 and 17.43 – 19.28 on Saturday.

Passengers travelling from Liverpool to Kirkby are advised that between selected times, all services to Kirkby will start at Sandhills. Passengers should board any train for Southport at either Liverpool Central or Moorfields and change on to a Kirkby service at Sandhills. This will apply to all services between 11.35 – 13.35 and 16.50 – 19.05 on Thursday and Friday, and 11.20 – 13.35 and 18.05 – 19.05 on Saturday.

Passengers travelling from Hunts Cross to Southport are advised that between 08.51 and 23.06 on Thursday and Friday, and all day on Saturday apart from the first and last train, services from Brunswick to Southport will leave stations 4 minutes later than timetabled.

All services from Ormskirk to Old Roan will depart 2 minutes earlier than the usual timetable, apart from the first and last service.

Andy Heath, Managing Director at Merseyrail said:

“This is a fantastic event in the region and we are always pleased to offer our support by enhancing our services to help everyone get to and from the races. Our staff work really hard at Aintree station to make it an extension of the great day that everyone will have at the races, and we’re really happy to be working with Radio City to create such a welcoming atmosphere. It wouldn’t be possible for us to do this without our staff, many of whom volunteer at Aintree station, and I’d like to offer my continued thanks to them for that.”

“As always, I’m sure it will be a great event and we look forward to welcoming everyone to Aintree.”