Northern praises Grand National racegoers after services run smoothly during busy week
Northern has praised racegoers for playing their part to help services run smoothly last week, when they flocked to Merseyside for the Grand National.
More than 150,000 people attended the famous horse racing event at Aintree Racecourse over three days.
Many travelled through Liverpool Lime Street, to catch connecting trains to Aintree, and on Saturday the station was also used by thousands of football fans travelling to watch Liverpool play Fulham at Anfield.
Despite the large influx of passengers, cancellations and significant delays were kept to a minimum, following weeks of planning and preparation.
Northern ran almost 98% of scheduled services in the Liverpool city region over the three-day event.
The operator worked closely with Network Rail to ensure everyone could get where they needed to go and additional staff were brought in to manage crowds.
To meet higher demand, Northern provided extra carriages on some routes and ran extra services between Ormskirk and Preston on Saturday.
A rapid response team and rail replacement services were put on standby – in case a line needed to be closed due to issues with the track or trains – but they were not required.
Craig Harrop, Northern’s Director of Service Delivery in Liverpool, said: “We welcomed thousands of racing fans on board last week, following weeks of planning and preparation.
“Our services and stations were busy, however passengers were patient and polite throughout the three-day event, which makes it much easier for us to keep everything running smoothly.
"I’d like to thank all of the staff from across the industry who worked so hard to get everyone where they needed to go, right across the city region, without any significant delays or cancellations."
Northern is the second largest train operator in the UK, with 2,650 services a day to more than 500 stations across the North of England.