Updated: PLANS to ease the strain on a “bottleneck” rail gateway to York Station could move forward after proposals for new signals were drawn up.

Network Rail has applied for permission to install the posts on two platforms as the company looks to remodel Holgate Junction to make it easier for trains to enter and leave the city.

The project would involve laying an additional line, the fourth on the stretch of the network, between the junction and the station as part of a multi-million pound package of improvements.

It now hopes to win approval from City of York Council for the signals on platforms nine and ten.

The aim is for the overall Holgate scheme to be completed by 2014, and Network Rail says the signalling scheme would not harm the station’s listed building status.

“Network Rail have identified there is a train capacity bottleneck which exists on the East Coast Main Line between Holgate Junction and York Station,” said a design and access statement on the signalling scheme which has been handed in to planners.

“The [signal] works form part of a wider project to improve train capacity and performance by addressing some historical limitations of the track layout in relation to York Station.

Investing in these works will help to ensure the station’s continued and well-established use.”

Meanwhile, East Coast, the nationalised business which now runs the East Coast Main Line, has submitted an application to the council to install 11 extra CCTV cameras at the station after it carried out a review of security systems at sites along the route.