A SIGNAL just outside York Railway Station is under inspection after a train carrying hundreds of passengers overshot a red light.

Railtrack's investigations so far have revealed that a GNER driver passed the red light by 20 metres after he misjudged his braking distance.

Investigators from the Health and Safety Executive have put the signal - Y304 - under special surveillance, because it has been involved in nine safety scares.

But Liz Justice, of the executive, says there is no cause for alarm, as the train had stopped within safe limits.

"This is a danger level one signal and we don't normally investigate until it's a level three. This is just one of 22 signals we have under special surveillance."

William Simms, a spokesman for Railtrack, said: "As the driver approached the signal he was braking to stop but he misjudged his braking speed.

"It's like a motorist approaching a traffic light and coming to a stop with his bonnet just over the white line. But in the case of the train light there's an overlap of 250-metres and there's 500-metres before the point of conflict with other trains.

The probe into the incident, which happened on June 9 this year, comes as GNER launches a confidential reporting system for staff, aimed at making train travel safer.

Dave Mallender, spokesman for GNER, said: "Twenty thousand trains pass through that signal every year and this was an isolated incident. People shouldn't get a picture of trains trying to beat red lights like traffic."