To celebrate the royal wedding on Friday Merseyrail will give passengers called Kate or William free travel across the whole network for the day.

To travel free, passengers will need to produce a form of photo identification confirming their first name for eligibility at a Merseyrail ticket office where a free ticket will be issued.

Tickets must be bought from a ticket office before travelling as it cannot be issued on the train.

Bart Schmeink, Merseyrail’s managing director, said: “Giving every Kate and William on Merseyside free travel on the Merseyrail network is our way of celebrating the event.

"On such a special day, we want to make every Kate and William feel like royalty.”

Apparently acceptable variations of the names are Kate: Katie, Catherine, Kathryn. William: Will, Willy, Bill, Billy.

Merseyrail will be running a reduced Saturday service on the big day. There will be a reduction of 10 trains across the network.