Lhota: MTA a ‘challenge’ that I’ll love

FORMER MTA chief Joe Lhota is credited with bringing the subway back after a raging Hurricane Sandy flooded the system.

Current MTA chief Joe Lhota may wish a hurricane was his biggest problem.

What awaits Lhota when he returns Friday to the MTA offices in lower Manhattan is a transit system in constant spasm from worn-out equipment and crushing demand.

But Lhota, who ran the Metropolitan Transportation Authority from November 2011 to December 2012, says he’s game.

“Anybody who knows me knows how much I love a challenge,” he said told the Daily News on Thursday. “This may be the biggest challenge of my life.”

Lhota (photo) accepted Gov. Cuomo’s nomination Wednesday as the state legislative session was ending. Twenty minutes after he said yes, his name was sent to the state Senate for confirmation.

“The governor was desperate. He was able to cut his own deal,” a source said of Lhota’s hastily arranged appointment.

Lhota will take a $1 salary for being MTA chairman and CEO. He’s also keeping his day job as vice president of NYU Langone Medical Center and said the day-to-day management of the MTA will shift to an executive director. Ronnie Hakim, the current interim director, is on his short list, he added.

As MTA chair, Lhota said he’ll offer strategic advice to the board and deal with the region’s politicians “to be able to allow the person who’s running the place — literally keeping the trains on time — to not worry about the other issues.”

So far, Lhota has said only that extensive overnight and weekend closures may be needed to do the work required to stem delays.

Amid the Lhota fanfare, de Blasio and Cuomo traded barbs.

“The MTA is run by the State of New York, it’s run by Gov. Cuomo,” de Blasio said.

Cuomo said he doesn’t have enough board appointees to be in charge. “He can’t count,” Cuomo said of de Blasio.

The governor also demanded the city ante up. “The state may have to pay more. The city definitely has to pay more.”

The city pointed to a behindschedule $33 billion capital plan in response. “We’d be better off talking about how they’re planning to spend the money,” said de Blasio spokeswoman Freddi Goldstein.