Bosses at Aintree racecourse could be faced with a transport crisis, after the Rail, Maritime and Transport Union (RMT) announced plans for a nationwide 4-day rail strike, beginning April 6th.
The rail outage coincides with the biggest weekend of the racing calendar, and organisers of the world-famous Grand National meeting fear "shutting down" the rail network could have catastrophic effects on the event.
But bosses at Aintree reassured racegoers that contingency plans were being devised in advance, to counter union chiefs plans to "effectively shut down the rail network".
Grand National spokeswoman Emma Owen said: "Since we got notification of the strike we've been in touch with Merseytravel to take care of arrangements locally.
"I know a contingency plan is being worked on to make sure there is as little disruption as possible. But nationally it may cause problems."
Transport arrangements are already disrupted due to road closures on busy Rice Lane, which provides a major route to the racecourse.
Union officials threatened strike action after Network Rail announced plans to axe 1500 rail jobs and change working hours, prompting Prime Minister Gordon Brown to intervene. The government have urged officials from both parties to negotiate an agreement.
RMT general secretary Bob Crow said: "We go into the talks in a positive frame of mind and committed to reaching an agreement which protects safety-critical jobs, safe working practices and which delivers a secure future for both our members and the travelling public the length and breadth of the UK rail network."
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