Editorial: Daunting ride for new MTA boss

When Joseph Lhota, chosen yesterday by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo to lead the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, reports to work, he'll find pitfalls deeper than the tunnels under Penn Station awaiting him. His resume and reputation, though, suggest he can avoid those depths, and take our transportation system to new heights.

Lhota comes with high praise from the committee created to find a successor to former Chairman Jay Walder, who is leaving the MTA to run a transit system based in Hong Kong. Lhota's experience includes stints as New York City deputy mayor for operations under Mayor Rudy Giuliani and as budget director and commissioner of finance for the city. He's also held significant management positions at First Boston and PaineWebber, has been a vice president at Cablevision, which owns Newsday, and is an executive vice president of Madison Square Garden, formerly owned by Cablevision.

He'll face a different challenge than his predecessor did two years ago, partly because Walder has already overseen unpopular moves including raising fares, cutting service, trimming payroll and administration, and implementing the state's MTA payroll tax.

Still, his challenges are many. In January the MTA will enter negotiations with the Transport Workers Union, already promising a very tough stance, and more than a dozen other unions. The recent news that the East Side Access to New York City for the Long Island Rail Road won't be done until at least 2018 is drawing scorn. Even more challenging is public anger at the MTA, particularly on Long Island, where service interruptions and poor communication have been the rule over the past year.

Lhota also inherits an agency where the finances, while more stable than pre-Walder, remain troubling. The plan being pursued to pay for its major projects is doable, but difficult.

On the bright side, Walder's "bad cop" work gives Lhota a chance to be the "good cop." He is a financial professional and a politically savvy operative, and those skills are badly needed right now. Cuomo's nomination of Lhota was paired with the governor's appointment of two accomplished transit professionals to key posts, giving him a solid team to keep the trains, and thus the metropolitan area, running.

For chief operating officer of the MTA, Cuomo selected Nuria Fernandez, who has run the Chicago Airport System and served as an executive with the U.S. Department of Transportation and the transit authorities of Washington and Chicago. To his own staff, Cuomo appointed, as deputy secretary of transportation, Karen Rae, most recently deputy administrator of the Federal Railroad Administration. Rae has a three-decade resume managing transit systems nationwide.

Lhota takes over as interim CEO next month, but then must be confirmed by the State Senate. He'll face at least moderate hostility as senators browbeat him about the payroll tax and service issues. His response could be an indication of how he'll handle the job.

We wish him luck because, in a job as hugely complex and dependent on weather and public sentiment as his, he'll need it -- and New York needs for him to succeed. hN