Rail passengers urged to plan ahead for bank holiday

Rail passengers in the north-west of England are being advised to plan their journeys ahead of the bank holiday weekend as several major events are set to take place across the region.

Creamfields music festival returns to Daresbury in Cheshire on Thursday and runs to Sunday, while Manchester Village Pride will take place from Friday until Monday.

The new Premier League football season also continues, with Liverpool hosting Nottingham Forest on Saturday and Manchester United taking on Ipswich Town at Old Trafford on Sunday.

Network Rail said tens of thousands of people were expected to be travelling to attend the events and extra staff would be on hand in stations.

The railway body is advising travellers to check their journey on the National Rail website and to expect services to be "very busy".

"It's great to see the North West hosting so many huge events over the bank holiday weekend and we want everyone travelling by train to have the best possible journeys," Network Rail's North West route director Chris Wright said.

"To make your journeys as smooth and easy as possible, I'm urging travellers to follow our key travel tips - plan your journey, know the time of your last train home and please respect our station staff.

"We will have additional staff in place to provide advice and keep people safe throughout the weekend."

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