jon ironmonger reports.ool lime street station this morning, the starting point for thousands of racegoers travelling to grand national day. so if you are off to aintree on the train, you can expect some problems. the rmt union says support for strikes on merseyrail and northern is rock solid, with widespread delays, packed or cancelled trains and replacement buses likely across all services. to limit the disruption, merseyrail has laid on a special timetable to and from the course, but other routes could be hit as a result. northern rail says it has moved the times of its last services from lime street to later in the evening. the strikes, about the role of the guard on trains, began on southern rail a year ago, and has spread to companies in the north of england in recent weeks. southern says it expects to operate a near normal service today because more of its trains can run withjust a driver on board. so far, talks to try to resolve the dispute have broken down. jon ironmonger, bbc news. let's get more i

jon ironmonger reports. judith moritz is that liverpool's lime street station.nal day, more than 40,000 rail passenger journeys made national day, more than 40,000 rail passengerjourneys made on this day. today the passengers are walking past a picket line manned by the rmt union and the northwest regional organiser is with me. darren, what prompted the strike action? it is not the first time you have been out on strike and you have chosen grand national day. any strike is high profile and there are three companies taking industrial action today, and this day has been chosen because it has come from our membership. they want to strike on the 8th of april, on a weekend, under anti—trade union laws we need to give 14 days it noticed there by the time the committee considered the time the committee considered the decisions, after the last action was taken there were increased notice periods. this dispute has wise and on that —— widened on merseyside and the north of england but today has been set by the membership. you will i presume but today has been set by the m