After spending months downplaying the severity of wide gaps between trains and station platforms, the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) admitted Friday the problem is bigger than it initially acknowledged.

The LIRR says nearly 40 percent of all station platform gaps measure at unsafe widths. With approximately 900 gap-related injuries in recent years, new Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) CEO Elliot "Lee" Sander says last August's death of a Minnesota teen shed light on how bad the problem had gotten. Sander says closing the gaps is high on his priority list, and installing warning signs and yellow bumper boards at 100 stations should create a safer commute by spring of 2008.

Nonetheless, commuters are furious about what appears to be a slow-moving response. The MTA says it will take time because a solution for one station may not be practical at another. Commuter watchdogs believe the LIRR should step up its efforts because liability litigation will likely cost the MTA far more money than fixing the problem and preventing injury.