After two years of complaints by commuters, Metro-North is changing the armrests on its new trains.

Since 2004, 452 people have filed damage claims with Metro-North, saying their clothes had been ripped by the armrests on the new M7 trains. The claims forced Metro-North to shell out more than $45,000 in settlements. As a result, two of the new trains were retrofitted with new armrest prototypes and given a test run during peak hours Thursday. Commuters say the new shorter, wider armrests were a great improvement.

Officials say it will cost more than $1.6 million to retrofit all 336 M7 cars in the fleet. The railroad plans to ask the Metropolitan Transportation Authority board to pay for the new armrests for all its cars.